Posts about Emerging Infectious Diseases
I am also the Global Co-Director of PREDICT, the part of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats Program for identifying potential emerging infections and their sources. And Iโm the founding chair of ProMEDโthe nonprofit international Program to Monitor Emerging Diseases. In 1994, a few colleagues and I created ProMED-mail, an international network for outbreak reporting and disease monitoring using the Internet, a free service available to anyone interested.
In recent days, Iโve been quoted on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in USA Today and I was featured on MSNBC and Huffington Post Live.
I will be answering questions starting at 2PM ET (11AM PT). Ask Me Anything!
I'm a virologist and Chief of Science at the California Academy of Sciences, where I spend a lot of time looking into where viruses that infect humans come from (we call these zoonotics). I use clues in the genomes of viruses about how they mutate and evolve to read their origin stories as well as find their fitness "pressure points," which for humans translates into how they spread and how virulent they are. I've been tracking the emergence and spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2, agent of the disease COVID-19, based on its unique biological features. I really became fascinated with pathogens when I was a college student volunteering in west Africaโin the span of a few weeks I contracted malaria, amoebic dysentery, a staph infection, and was hospitalized in a leper colony. It taught me a new level of respect for my parasite foes, all of whom evolve rapidly, have natural reservoirs, and can cause significant disease. Sound familiar? Here's more about me on this website, and my twitter handle is @MicrobeExplorer.
Proof: https://i.redd.it/378x45vsghn41.jpg
UPDATE: I have to head out now, but will try to come back later and address some more. Thanks for all the great exchange! Meanwhile, stay healthy and help flatten the curve!