EcoHealth Alliance is a US-based non-governmental organization with a stated mission of protecting people,animals,and the environment from emerging infectious diseases. The nonprofit is focused on research that aims to prevent pandemics and promote conservation in hotspot regions worldwide.
GISAID is a global science initiative and primary source established in 2008 that provides open access to genomic data of influenza viruses and the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. On January 10,2020,the first whole-genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 were made available on GISAID,which enabled global responses to the pandemic,including the development of the first vaccines and diagnostic tests to detect SARS-CoV-2. The database has become the world's largest repository for SARS-CoV-2 sequences. GISAID facilitates genomic epidemiology and real-time surveillance to monitor the emergence of new COVID-19 viral strains across the planet.
Edward Charles Holmes is an evolutionary biologist and virologist,and since 2012 a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australia Fellow and professor at the University of Sydney. He is also an Honorary Visiting Professor at Fudan University,Shanghai,China (2019–present)
Shi Zhengli is a Chinese virologist who researches SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origin. Shi directs the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). In 2017,Shi and her colleague Cui Jie discovered that the SARS coronavirus likely originated in a population of cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Xiyang Yi Ethnic Township,Yunnan. She came to prominence in the popular press as "Batwoman" during the COVID-19 pandemic for her work with bat coronaviruses. Shi was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic,also known as the coronavirus pandemic,is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified from an outbreak in Wuhan,China,in December 2019. Attempts to contain it there failed,allowing the virus to spread worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 5 April 2022,the pandemic had caused more than 493 million cases and 6.15 million deaths,making it one of the deadliest in history.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19,the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a provisional name,2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV),and has also been called human coronavirus 2019. First identified in the city of Wuhan,Hubei,China,the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020,and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. SARS‑CoV‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans.
The Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market,simply known as the Huanan Seafood Market,was a live animal and seafood market in Jianghan District,Wuhan City,the capital of Hubei Province in Central China.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology,Chinese Academy of Sciences is a research institute on virology administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS),which reports to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The institute is one of nine independent organisations in the Wuhan Branch of the CAS. Located in Jiangxia District,Wuhan,Hubei,it opened mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory. The institute has collaborated with the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States,the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France,and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada. The institute has been an active premier research center for the study of coronaviruses.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus,the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan,China,in December 2019. The disease has since spread worldwide,leading to an ongoing pandemic.
COVID-19 misinformation refers to misinformation and conspiracy theories about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin,prevention,diagnosis,and treatment of the disease COVID-19,which is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. False information,including intentional disinformation,has been spread through social media,text messaging,and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities,politicians,and other prominent public figures. Many countries have passed laws against "fake news",and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant.
Pandemic prevention is the organization and management of preventive measures against pandemics. Those include measures to reduce causes of new infectious diseases and measures to prevent outbreaks and epidemics from becoming pandemics.
Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Shanta Corbett is an American viral immunologist. She is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute since June 2021.
Peter Daszak is a British zoologist,consultant and public expert on disease ecology,in particular on zoonosis. He is the president of EcoHealth Alliance,a nonprofit non-governmental organization that supports various programs on global health and pandemic prevention. He is also a member of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Andrew Rambaut is a British evolutionary biologist,as of 2020 Professor of Molecular Evolution at the University of Edinburgh.
Bat coronavirus RaTG13 is a SARS-like betacoronavirus that infects the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis. It was discovered in 2013 in bat droppings from a mining cave near the town of Tongguan in Mojiang county in Yunnan,China. It is the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2,the virus that causes COVID-19,sharing 96.1% nucleotide similarity. Preprint from September 2021 suggested even a closer match with a strain of coronavirus found in bats in Laos.
There are several ongoing efforts by scientists,governments,international organisations,and others to determine the origin of SARS-CoV-2,the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Most scientists say that as with other pandemics in human history,the virus is likely of zoonotic origin in a natural setting,and ultimately originated from a bat-borne virus. Several other explanations,including many conspiracy theories,have been proposed about the origins of the virus.
The Chinese government has actively engaged in disinformation to downplay the emergence of COVID-19 in China and manipulate information about its spread around the world. The government also detained whistleblowers and journalists claiming they were spreading rumors when they were publicly raising concerns about people being hospitalized for a "mysterious illness" resembling SARS.
The COVID-19 lab leak theory proposes that SARS-CoV-2,the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic,originated from a laboratory in Wuhan,China. Central to the theory is the observation that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is in the same city as the pandemic's earliest known outbreak. The theory has also gained support because of suspicions about the secrecy of the Chinese government's response. Scientists from WIV had previously collected SARS-related coronaviruses from bats;allegations that they also performed undisclosed risky work on such viruses is central to some versions of the idea. Some versions,particularly those alleging alteration of the SARS-CoV-2 genome,are based on speculation,misinformation,or misrepresentations of scientific evidence.
COVID Moonshot is a collaborative open-science project started in March 2020 with the goal of developing an un-patented oral antiviral drug to treat SARS-CoV-2,the virus causing COVID-19. COVID Moonshot researchers are targeting the proteins needed to form functioning new viral proteins. They are particularly interested in proteases such as 3C-like protease (Mpro),a coronavirus nonstructural protein that mediates the breaking and replication of proteins.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China,the government of China has followed a zero COVID strategy to prevent the spread of COVID-19. After discovery of a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan,Hubei Province,a public notice on the outbreak was distributed on 31 December 2019. On 8 January 2020,a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was announced by Chinese scientists as the cause of the new disease;the virus was sequenced and its genome uploaded online.
