Biosecurity

THE CORONAVIRUS STARTED IN ANIMALS. THAT MAKES IT MORE DANGEROUS.

The coronavirus that emerged in China and rapidly spread around the world almost certainly jumped to humans from an animal. While that’s certainly not unheard of, scientists are on high alert — because zoonotic viruses, as they’re called, can potentially be more dangerous.

The heightened risk associated with animal-borne diseases like 2019-nCoV comes from the fact that our immune systems have never had the chance to build up resistance to them, according to New Scientist.

From an evolutionary perspective, a successful virus is one that develops to spread rapidly and rampantly — something that depends on the survival of its host.

“They don’t want you to drop dead within a day because you won’t pass it to anyone else,” University of Nottingham researcher Chris Coleman told New Scientist.