I began studying pandemics in 2003, when I joined Peter Daszak’s research team👇. I traveled to Africa to help answer the question: Where does Ebola go between outbreaks? The virus would destroy a village, killing hundreds, then it would disappear for decades. Where did it go?
Daszak had a hunch; our group went to Cameroon to find Ebola. We traveled into the bush, tracking the flight pattern of bats. My job was to scurry up a hill or climb a tree to place a net in their flightpath. We caught hundreds🦇& sent their blood to the U.S. for analysis.
Our group & others discovered that bats were harboring deadly viruses, including Ebola. From our work, we knew that the next pandemic would likely emerge from a bat. I interviewed Daszak five years ago & he mentioned the dangers of Chinese meat markets: slate.com/technology/201…
Peter Daszak is a visionary who has dedicated his career to pandemic prediction. His work is crucial for disaster preparedness. It is a mistake to cut his funding.
sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/n…
sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/n…
