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In late March 2020, as COVID-19 cut a path of destruction across New York City, a colleague emailed me to ask if I wanted to work with him on sequencing some viral genomes. Eukaryote-infecting viruses like SARS-Cov-2 are far afield from my usual lab work of studying microbial communities in the body and in the oceans, but because I have expertise in genomic analysis, Albert Einstein College of Medicine virologist Kartik Chandran thought I might be able to help. I jumped at his offer and dove into a collaboration to understand SARS-CoV-2’s spread through the Bronx.
Early SARS-CoV-2 virus sequencing efforts in New York City had produced few sequences from the city’s most northerly borough, which was disproportionately affected by the pandemic. By early May 2020, the Bronx led the city with 1 death per 451 residents, nearly twice the rate in Manhattan (1 in 837). ...
