The second wave of Covid-19 is sweeping through India, and we are expecting a third wave. More than 3.5 million people on the globe have perished in the pandemic. Yet, no one knows how exactly the deadly virus, Sars-CoV-2, emerged and spread to humans.
We need to know how it happened, so as to prevent the next pandemic. But, even a year after the outbreak, no robust process has been established for examining the origin of the virus.
Until last month, the possibility that the virus escaped from a lab was treated as a conspiracy theory. Today, things have changed, and a lab origin of the virus remains a possible theory. The US president and the former director of the Centers for Disease Control, besides many renowned scientists, have called for a proper investigation of the origin.
As a scientific couple, we were intrigued by the virus and started an online expedition at the end of March 2020. The journey led us to discover the link between a copper mine and the nearest relative of the virus.
Being scientists in biology, we were only a step ahead of laymen in understanding the pandemic. We began by reading scientific papers on coronaviruses and Covid-19. We were fixated on reading the work of Professor Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. Baric has been studying coronaviruses for decades and had created Sars-like chimeric viruses in the lab.
Bu hikaye THE WEEK dergisinin June 13, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye THE WEEK dergisinin June 13, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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