Chapter 1
Disease outbreaks are almost always shrouded in mysteries and uncertainties. It is the norm, not the exception. What they tend to leave behind beyond the physical devastation are haunting questions: Why did it happen? Could we have stopped it? Maybe most importantly, will it happen again?
“My father died of Nipah”, the young research assistant Wee Chee Yap told me when I met her on a virus hunting field trip with the virus hunters Wacharapluesadee Supaporn, Linfa Wang and Peter Daszak in Thailand. A new virus named Nipah had changed the young research assistants life trajectory forever, and now she was determined to not let it happen to anybody else.
Walking under ten thousand bats carrying the deadly virus, I try to get better insights into the work, life and person of the now controversial zoologist Peter Daszak from EcoHealth alliance. For some, he and his Chinese collaborator, Dr. Zhengli Shi from the Wuhan Institute of virology, are at the heart of Covid-19 origins and various associated conspiracy myths. But his work is not the only research that the pandemic has put into question.
Since Covid, virus hunting as a field of scientific inquiry has become seen by many as misguided, pricey and possibly dangerous. How did we get to a point where the scientists whose warnings were not heeded are now seen as the ones mostly likely responsible for causing the pandemic?
References:
Some background reading on the Nipah Virus outbreak in Malaysia in 1998/1999
About Nipah virus. (2024, February 23). Nipah Virus. https://www.cdc.gov/nipah-virus/about/index.html
Doucleff, M. (2017, February 25). A taste for pork helped a deadly virus jump to humans. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/02/25/515258818/a-taste-for-pork-helped-a-deadly-virus-jump-to-humans
Luby SP, Gurley ES, Hossain MJ. Transmission of human infection with Nipah virus. Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Dec 1;49(11):1743-8. doi: 10.1086/647951. PMID: 19886791; PMCID: PMC2784122.
Hassan MM, Kalam MA, Alam M, Shano S, Faruq AA, Hossain MS, Islam MN, Khan SA, Islam A. Understanding the Community Perceptions and Knowledge of Bats and Transmission of Nipah Virus in Bangladesh. Animals. 2020; 10(10):1814. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101814
Examples of the media frenzy about Dr. Daszak just posting pictures to social media on our trip
Brown, L. (2022, December 12). Peter Daszak, virologist behind COVID lab-leak theories, posts videos with 2.5M bats. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2022/12/12/virologist-peter-daszak-posts-video-with-millions-of-bats/
Griffith, K., & Oliveira, A. (2022, December 12). GOP senators slam Peter Daszak for “playing in a bat cave” in Thailand. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11530565/GOP-senators-slam-Peter-Daszak-playing-bat-cave-Thailand.html
Peter Daszak receives white powder letter and death threats
Disease expert reportedly receives envelope with white powder at Montebello home. (n.d.). News 12 - Default. https://bronx.news12.com/disease-expert-reportedly-receives-envelope-with-white-powder-at-montebello-home-42549678
Feature article from Science Magazine about Supaporn Wacharapluesadee
Cohen J. Looking for trouble. Science. 2022 Apr 15;376(6590):234-239. doi: 10.1126/science.abq4269. Epub 2022 Apr 14. PMID: 35420966.
The PREDICT program aimed to to strengthen global capacity for detection and discovery of viruses with pandemic potential
PREDICT. (2020, December 5). School of Veterinary Medicine. https://ohi.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/programs-projects/predict-project
Background story to how the DEEP-VZN program was quietly cancelled:
Willman D. The US quietly terminates a controversial $125m wildlife virus hunting programme amid safety fears BMJ 2023; 382 :p2002 doi:10.1136/bmj.p2002
Markolin, P., PhD. (2023, September 10). US virus hunting grant quietly canceled after influence campaign. Protagonist Science. https://www.protagonist-science.com/p/us-virus-hunting-grant-quietly-canceled