Covid 19 coronavirus: Scientists are trying to spot new viruses before they cause pandemics
15 Feb, 2021 07:37 PM
6 minutes to read
A lab scientists preparing to test Covid-19 samples from recovered patients. Photo / Getty Images
New York Times
By: Veronique Greenwood
Scientists want to build a weather system for viruses. It would require a big financial investment, plus buy-in from doctors, hospitals and blood banks.
Back in the summer, Dr. Michael Mina made a deal with
a cold storage company. With many of its restaurant clients closed down, the firm had freezers to spare. And Mina, a public health researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, had a half-million vials of plasma from human blood coming to his lab from across the country, samples dating back to the carefree days of January 2020.