To the Bat Cave

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

To fight a pandemic, you need to first understand where a virus comes from. That quest takes disease ecologist Jon Epstein to gloomy caverns where bats hang out. There he checks up on hundreds of the animals as his team from the EcoHealth Alliance trace the origins of disease-causing viruses. But their important work is facing its own threat; the Trump administration recently terminated funding to the Alliance because of its collaboration with Chinese scientists. Hear how Dr. Epstein finds the viruses, what kind of human activity triggers outbreaks, and how science counters the unsubstantiated claim that the virus escaped from a lab. Guests: Jon Epstein – Veterinary epidemiologist with the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance Meredith Wadman – Staff writer for the journal Science. Read her article about the cancellation of the NIH bat coronavirus grant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
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0:23.6	at Shopify. co-deek slash special offer,
0:26.4	all lowercase.
0:27.5	That's Shopify. co-deekk slash special offer.
0:32.3	Get ready to geek out. The Wired Science Podcast explores all the
0:36.8	latest and greatest in science, everything from strange diseases and
0:40.6	biological breakthroughs to interesting tech and mysteries in outer space.
0:45.0	Listen to Wired Science today wherever you get your podcasts.
0:49.0	That's Wired Science wherever you get your podcasts. As we deal with this coronavirus, it's important that we know the source of the virus,
1:07.0	the one that's currently ravaging the world. I mean, if that source spawned this pandemic, it could spawn a future one.
1:14.0	And of course, we want to stop future pandemics before they start.
1:17.5	Well, science has a lot to say about the origins of this virus.
1:21.0	But in some circles, science's message has been competing with an
1:25.0	unusual sensational claim. President Trump has asserted that the coronavirus
1:29.8	escaped from a Chinese lab and Secretary of State Pompeo went so far as to echo internet rumors that the virus was man-made.
1:38.0	Neither gentleman has provided evidence to support their assertions.
1:42.0	And without seeing evidence, there's no way to evaluate whether this idea is plausible,
	...

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