Virus-hunting programme shut down due to pandemic fear

The idea behind the US virus-hunting programme was to prevent a pandemic, but after Covid-19 emerged, the fear of it accidentally triggering one instead became too real to ignore. — Freepik

For more than a decade, the US government has been funding international programmes engaged in identifying exotic wildlife viruses that might someday infect humans.

But The BMJ revealed on Sept 7 (2023) that a flagship project for hunting viruses among wildlife in South-East Asia, Africa and Latin America to prevent human outbreaks and pandemics is being quietly dropped by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) after private and bipartisan criticism over the safety of such research.