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In early 2003, a deadly respiratory illness began spreading in China, raising alarm bells among health authorities around the world. After cropping up in 29 countries, the coronavirus that caused the illness, now known as SARS-CoV-1, infected more than 8,000 people and killed more than 700. Less than 10 years later, in 2012, another deadly coronavirus, MERS-CoV, emerged—killing hundreds more.
Then, in 2019, came SARS-CoV-2, a related virus whose devastation has vastly outstripped that of its predecessors. Based on the latest tallies, the virus has infected more 100 million people and caused more than 3.8 million deaths. “In less than 20 years, we have seen three major outbreaks from three different coronaviruses,” says Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, a viral immunologist at Northwestern University. “The question is not whether there will be a next coronavirus pandemic. The question is when.”
To better prepare for the next deadly outbreak, some ...
