Contextualizing bats as viral reservoirs
Science 141d 5 tweets
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the latest in a distressing tally of viral infections—including Ebola, Nipah, rabies, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)—that have evolutionary origins or...


Daniel Streicker 141d ago
Wondering what links bats to zoonotic viruses? My new perspective in w/ Amy Gilbert offers more questions than answers, but hopefully will inspire. Contextualizing bats as viral reservoirs
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Brendan Larsen 141d ago
Wonderful article by and Amy Gilbert. I strongly agree it is too early to say anything definitive about the "uniqueness" of bat immunity and viruses. We know so little. And yes despite narrative bats can and do get very sick from viruses!
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Science Magazine 130d ago
A new #SciMagPerspective discusses current understandings on bats as reservoirs for potential zoonotic diseases and argue that their role in zoonotic disease requires more investigation before solutions can be found.
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Bente Lab 141d ago
Don't know too much about bat viruses but this is a nice perspective
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Dan Graur 141d ago
"Contextualize" was coined by linguists in 1934. It escaped into the humanities & social science in the late 1950s & early 1960s. It is now colonizing the sciences. In all but its original meaning, dealing with phonemes & words, it serves to obfuscate.
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