Epidemiologist Jeremy Farrar on the Next Viral Threat “I Fear We Are at the Beginning of an Era of Pandemics”
In an interview, infectious diseases expert Sir Jeremy Farrar discusses recent mutations of the coronavirus and his worries about future pandemics. He says COVID is here to stay and that we haven’t reached a “stable phase yet” that would allow us to let down our guard. – Spiegel International
- Farrar: What we’re seeing right now is certainly not a coincidence. In 1999, it started with the Nipah virus in Malaysia. Then came SARS-1, MERS, Ebola in West Africa, Zika in Brazil, SARS-CoV-2. There are more and more people in the world, and living together in small spaces in big cities favors the spread of many viruses. And something is changing at the human-animal interface that makes it easier for viruses to jump to us. We are now 8 billion people, and we are expanding our habitat further and further into nature, and animals are migrating into cities. I fear we are at the beginning of an era of pandemics.
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