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Research must be ‘well thought out to ensure money is well invested’, virologist tells inquiry
Prudent investment is needed to predict future outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Covid-19, virology experts have told the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s first meeting on its science of Covid-19 inquiry.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said it was possible to identify and track potential future pandemics, such as the Sars cluster of viruses.
“That’s a group of viruses that are ready to go into humans and therefore they have to be monitored very closely,” he told peers on 19 May. “Particularly people living in proximity to those viruses and the reservoir species.”
He said this can be done through surveillance of populations most at risk to future pandemics through zero-prevalence studies. These look at antibodies to see if people have been exposed to a virus, as well as through actively searching for viruses.
He said: “We have fantastic genomic technology these days…that [can]…identify viruses very, very quickly.”
However, while being reasonably easy, such work is “expensive, and of course you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time to spot the virus”, he said—pointing out that such research must be “very well thought out to ensure that the money is well invested”.
Ball advocated the need for a broader research focus for more resilience against any future pandemics.
“At the moment the World Health Organisation list focuses on species [of viruses] and I think it would do well to broaden that out to think of large groupings of those viruses—for example, genera or even families of virus,” he said.
This would enable scientists to deliver broader strategies of “trying to develop, not only vaccine platforms, but drugs which can act across various species of virus”.
David Robertson, head of viral genomics and bioinformations at the University of Glasgow, said there was often a “gap between basic science and public health” where “you have an identification of a risk but then no appropriate action”.
“It should be possible going forward to really just set a list of viruses,” he said. “Coronaviruses are now top of the list but we have to worry about lots of other viruses and really invest in finding out where they are circulating and getting ready with medicines that target host molecules that would work in advance of a virus being identified, which is all within our capability.”
Reflecting on the 2002-04 Sars epidemic, Robertson said vaccine research on the virus did not continue after the outbreak “because…we thought the threat had been lowered”.
The experts also dismissed rumours espoused by US president Donald Trump about the virus originating in a Chinese laboratory rather than emerging naturally in bats.
“We’re not clever enough to design this virus—it’s far too unique,” Ball said. “In terms of an evolutionary history, the evidence is absolutely solid that we have viruses in bats that are highly related to this.”