"Getting that type of data is expensive. It's difficult. And it takes a long time. We're finding things maybe a week or two weeks or even a month later."
"COVID highlighted this problem. The medical community couldn't keep up with the virus... SARS-CoV-2 was circulating as much as two months before the first case was identified."
"We're now ahead of the game. We're now detecting things almost in real time."
"A lot of times we're on the back foot."
Five years after COVID-19's declaration as a pandemic, the world grapples with its response capabilities. While trust in scientists and between nations has waned, innovations are emerging. Erik Karlsson's team developed a portable lab designed to quickly identify circulating viruses, addressing delays in tracking disease spread. The COVID pandemic revealed serious weaknesses; notably, SARS-CoV-2 circulated undetected for months. Karlsson's lab enables near real-time detection, representing a significant improvement over previous methods, and stresses the need for better readiness for potential future pandemics.
Read at www.npr.org
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