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Perspectives on the coronavirus from an expert virologist and a health journalist, as the world races to contain the pandemic. By André Hereford
ONFIRMED CASES OF CORONAVIRUS WORLDWIDE are proliferating faster than any one organization can accurately track the spread of the disease. Prior to publication, the World Health Organization’s global tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to more than 190,000, while the total reported by HealthMap — which includes Oxford and Harvard Medical School among its contributing sources — has jumped to more than 200,000 cases. According to the WHO, two months ago there were 282 confirmed cases in four countries. The rapid spread of the disease, and ensuing fatalities, fear, shutdowns, and economic slowdown, have left folks reeling. And alongside the uncertainty, real and existential, that’s blanketed bustling cities like D.C., scientists like Dr. Thomas J. Hope are racing to grasp what makes the virus tick with enough certainty to be able to contain it. A pioneer in HIV research, Hope runs a lab in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He also happens to have been one of the U.S. co-organizers of an emerging infectious disease meeting in Bangkok the third week in February, where, as Hope told Metro Weekly, the coronavirus identified as 2019-nCoV was a major topic of discussion. “This meeting kind of related [to] where it all started to blow up,” he says. “It was really fascinating to follow it since then.” Busily monitoring COVID-19, Hope has been able to apply his expertise related to studying the first hours of how viral infection is established. “I think the key is, this virus can be exposed 16
MARCH 19, 2020 • WWW.METROWEEKLY.COM
in the environment and survive,” Hope explains. “HIV instantly would kind of dry out. Once HIV dries out, it's dead. I think that once COVID and other respiratory viruses dry out, they're actually in a more stable form. That's why they travel around the world. They sort of follow a less humid environment, which is advantageous for them.” Concerns about the virus had somewhat of a chilling effect on Hope’s February emerging viruses meeting. “A bunch of people canceled that trip to Bangkok, but a lot of people said they would wait and see,” he says. “I can tell you that it was very humid and hot there, and not an advantageous environment for the virus to transmit. At least, that's my interpretation of it.” Indeed, although the rate of infections is tipping upward in Thailand, the nation’s total number of cases — a reported 212, as of March 17 — still ranks well below the tens of thousands in China, Italy, and Iran. Nearby Cambodia has logged remarkably even fewer cases, but, as science journalist Andreas von Bubnoff reports from Phnom Penh, the disruption of everyday life familiar to people around the world has quickly swung into place there, too. “So what's happening here is that it's a little bit bizarre,” says von Bubnoff, who has years of experience covering viruses and vaccines. “And I thought it wasn't going to happen here that things were closing down. But now things are closing down.” Based in Kleve, Germany, where he’s also a professor of International Science Communications at Rhine-Waal University, von Bubnoff is visiting Cambodia, which announced
CORONA BOREALIS STUDIO
CHASING COVID-19
