Happy Nice Mall

Searching for the next virus

The Covid-19 pandemic is not over yet, but some researchers have already worry about rat pox.

Georgetown University biologist Colin Carlson has spent the last few years tracing the footsteps of coronavirus (from bats), HIV (chimpanzees), and hundreds more, training computers to predict which dangerous viruses can pass from animals to humans. other pathogens.

His team used machine learning to develop a shortlist of potentially dangerous viruses that could eventually make a splash. Mousepox, a virus that infects mice and resembles smallpox but is not seen as a significant danger to humans, repeatedly told my colleague Carl Zimmer “super high.”

Researchers who scrambled the scientific literature mysterious epidemic In rural China in 1987. Schoolchildren came in with an infection that caused a sore throat and inflammation of their hands and feet. When samples from this outbreak were analyzed decades later, scientists found mousepox DNA.

Mousepox is just one of many possible viruses that could cause a new epidemic that computers can eliminate in advance. I asked Carl to explain the complex process that experts use to search for potentially dangerous viruses. He said that the work started in the field: “It is not easy. To get a sample, you have to go and catch bats or rodents, or calm a lion with a dart. Not only that, you probably won’t find the virus in an animal. So you have to catch lots of them.

“Let’s say you’re looking at raccoons. You need to clean them, take stool samples, identify genetic material. You identify 10 new viruses. What will happen now? Should we be worried about them? Do they pose a threat? What machine learning can do is say, ‘This virus is very similar to other viruses we are familiar with. You can go through thousands of known viruses. You can make predictions. Then you can test them on a virus you’ve never seen before.”

Could machine learning, still in its early stages, have foretold the arrival of Covid? No, Carl said, because the virus was unknown before 2019. But now that we’re sure it originated in bats, machine learning can help us identify threatening bat species. “Finding these bats should be a really high priority,” he said.

Mammals alone can carry up to 100,000 separate viruses, not counting those found in birds or reptiles. “We’re swimming in an ocean of virus diversity, and we hardly know it,” said Carl, author of the book.A Planet of Viruses“This is one reason why scientists are collecting powerful tools like machine learning.”

One thing is certain: opportunities for animal-to-human transmission Continuing to rise due to climate change. Species will bump into each other as animals seek cooler climates. Viruses will jump between them. “A virus that’s too far away will get too close,” Carl said.

Shanghai is too angry to be quiet

Recently, frustration with the emergency curfews over the Shanghai pandemic has grown so strong that demonstrations of anger and grief erupted in front of the public.

During the pandemic, authorities turned the city’s tall office buildings into centers of mass isolation, replacing desks and employees with tightly packed beds. Authorities confiscated citizens’ homes to set up quarantine centers in buildings. Inside the centersThere was a lot of noise, little privacy and few showers. Garbage has accumulated. The headlights were never turned off. Food was scarce.

The Chinese government often purges the internet of opposition. But The Times found videos and photos of the quarantines and some protests. put together a visual analysis of what’s going on in the city. Take a look.

what else do we follow

what are you doing?

I’ve been working for a local anime convention since 2017. Recently, we finally held our first event, confident that we will prevent Covid. We followed all the rules: All participants had to be vaccinated, as well as masking and social distancing. So far we have come out without any cases. It was the most normal thing I’ve felt in a long time, despite the security measures. But that didn’t stop the incident from putting me off with my partner, who was overly concerned about the virus and thought we were irresponsible. I’m at the end of my mind and I just wish everything was normal again.

— Kristi, Honolulu

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