Acknowledgements

References

Abstract

A novel bat-origin coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and continues to spread across China and the world. At the time of writing, a massive global response has been implemented to control the disease as it spreads from person to person. Yet the high-risk human-wildlife interactions and interfaces that led to the emergence of SARSCoV and of 2019-nCoV continue to exist in emerging disease hotspots globally. To prevent the next epidemic and pandemic related to these interfaces, we call for research and investment in three areas: 1) surveillance among wildlife to identify the high-risk pathogens they carry; 2) surveillance among people who have contact with wildlife to identify early spillover events; and 3) improvement of market biosecurity regarding the wildlife trade. As the emergence of a novel virus anywhere can impact the furthest reaches of our connected world, international collaboration among scientists is essential to address these risks and prevent the next pandemic.

The emergence of a novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV in Wuhan December 2019 has led to a global response to the first epidemic of this decade. It has also highlighted two key issues: First, China’s rapid and efficient capacity to identify and investigate a newly emerging disease; and second, our continued global vulnerability to epidemics and pandemics. From the date of the first cluster of cases admitted to a local hospital on December 27, 2019, Chinese scientists identified this disease as a new syndrome, discovered the pathogen as the cause, and reported its genetic sequence to the world in less than 14 days [1,2]. At the time of writing, we have detailed information on its relationship to other bat coronaviruses, many of which were discovered in a collaboration among EcoHealth Alliance, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and Duke NUS [3]. We also have data from experimental cell line infections [4], on the clinical findings [5], the epidemiology of viral transmission [6], and on its spread to other countries. These rapid and successful results are a resounding endorsement of China’s emergence as a 21st Century scientific superpower, and of a country with a modern and efficient public health system, technically supported by the China CDC with a system of Provincial and City CDCs that are trained in effective outbreak investigation and control [7].