Even as the world grapples with the SARS-coronavirus2 (COV2) that caused the Covid-19 pandemic, a global concern is whether there would be a SARS-COV3 and how should the world prepare for it?

“There will be another one, but it may not be a (SARS- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-causing ) COV3, it could be MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)-COV2 or an XX-Cov1”, said American microbiologist Susan Weiss, who has over 40 years of work experience on the different aspects of coronavirus replication and pathogenesis. She was responding to a query during a panel discussion at the opening session of the TNQ-Janelia India Covid-19 seminar.

“Clearly we need a vaccine against this one, but it may not work against the next,” she said, adding that it was important to have drugs that work in such scenarios. The important thing was that there was knowledge on what to do and when, in terms of having “shutdowns” or being equipped with PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment), she added.

Weiss is currently Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Microbiology and Co-Director of the Penn Center, for research on coronaviruses and other emerging pathogens at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

‘Not designed in a lab’

Putting a lid on one of the controversies around the origins of the SARS-COV2, she said, the virus could not have been engineered in a lab, as it was similar to those seen in bats, did not resemble recombinant viruses and it was impossible to design a virus with the properties of the SARS-COV2.

Coronaviruses have been around a long time, she said, pointing to the animal coronaviruses identified since the 1960s. There was a small group studying these viruses, that also causes the common cold, she said, which it why it was quickly identified when SARS-CO1 emerged in 2003.

Responding to why SARS-COV1 was contained so quickly, she said that it was the “biggest mystery” and there is no clue why that happens, studying the genome. “It could be something really subtle,” she said, indicating that there was still much to know about the SARS-COV1. The MERS virus, she said, was more lethal, though less contagious.

Participating in the panel discussion, Shahid Jameel, founding Director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University, said that regarding the case and mortality numbers from India, the country accounted for 24 per cent of the global case load and 19 per cent of deaths per day. It is by no means slowing down, said JameelResponding to a query on where the virus may have originated from in India, Satyajit (Jitu) Mayor, said it possibly came into the country from the Middle East or Europe. Mayor is a cell biologist and Director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore.

The next two editions of the Covid-19 seminar, hosted by TNQ Technologies and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)’s Janelia Research Campus, wil come up on the next two consecutive Fridays.

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