Page 59 - My FlipBook 1

There is no “I’m at work” and that will not happen. feel some comfort when you say, THE VIROLOGIST
“I’m at home” anymore. The day Kids can sense when you’re not “You know what? I don’t know
just blends together. being real, so because they have this, either.” They know you’re PAUL DUPREX
When I speak with other teach- a lot of faith in you, you also have being honest. DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR
ers, we’re like, “We would be to show some sense of vulnera- Putting on a brave face doesn’t VACCINE RESEARCH,
doing this right now.” Or a cal- bility. They do expect you to mean acting like everything is UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
endar alert will pop up about a have the answers, but they also normal. —As told to A. W. Pittsburgh
field trip that was supposed to 95: Number of vaccine
happen. There are all these efforts worldwide
reminders that these things 10 TO 15 YEARS: Typical timeline for
Leach documented the shutdown in
aren’t happening. We’re griev- vaccine development
spring of the Tulsa public elementary
ing for the end of the school year school where she teaches. 12 TO 18 MONTHS: Goal for COVID-19
VIRUSES ARE BEAUTIFUL.
Viruses are biologically intriguing.
Viruses will always surprise us. I
love viruses. I respect viruses.
ALL THE GROUPS pursuing a
vaccine stay in touch via weekly
calls run by the World Health Orga-
nization. It’s wonderful. And you
know what? Good luck to every
one of them.
I LOVE THE FACT that it’s a race,
but I don’t care about winning. I
care about participating. Because
things that I learn along the way
might help something else get
Duprex holds a
culture plate containing across the finish line.
the Oropuche virus,
from Trinidad and IT’S NOT A VACCINE until it’s a
Tobago, against an product. If someone says they have
image on his office wall
of the poliovirus. a vaccine right now, they don’t.
They have a vaccine candidate.
HOPE IS A REALLY important
word, actually. Overpromising and
not being honest about where
you’re at is one of the most repre-
hensible things a person can do.
B U T A L S O, W E hope that
humanity will solve this problem.
Hope drives us to be creative, col-
laborative, energetic, hardwork-

NEA PIG. THAT’S KIND OF MY COMFORT ANIMAL.”

ing. And humanity has done it
are able to contract the virus,
the
We’ve been studying
The first tiger at the Bronx
very stressed, which compro-
COURTESY SUBJECTS. ©WCS (MARKET). SOURCES FOR DATA POINTS: EDUCATION WEEK, THE NEW YORK TIMES, TULSA the field to a market and then the trade chain. Such interac- King. So the news got a lot can transmit it back to us. measles and polio.
before. We’ve eradicated dis-
they develop a very mild sick-
Zoo tested positive a couple
wildlife trade for more than a
mises its immune system. It
eases, such as smallpox. We have
decade. We recently found
of weeks after the release
starts shedding viruses as it
ness. There’s no indication
diseases under control, such as
right now that cats, or dogs,
that as you follow a rat from
of
this Netflix series Tiger
meets other animals along
I AM CONFIDENT that the sci-
My father sent me a mes-
into a restaurant, there’s an
of traction.
tions reassort these viruses,
create new ones. Then the
increase in coronaviruses.
I haven’t seen the show.
entific community will come up
sage when the news broke
about Nadia: “I thought social
with a solution.
person who slaughters the
I’m European, so that it’s pos-
Our hypothesis is that as
the rat moves along, it gets
animal is exposed.
sible to privately own tigers,
distancing from big cats was
BUT I WON’T give false hope.
the norm.” And that’s the point.
or any kind of wildlife—that’s
—As told to E. S.
In the wild, if you’re closer than
just appalling.
six feet to a tiger, the last of
At the moment, all research
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
indicates that while cats—
“The commercial wildlife trade is quite
domesticated or otherwise—
a good system to create new virus,” Walzer says.
navirus. —As told to E. S.
59 SUMMER 2020 your worries will be the coro-