The Weakest Link

Abstract

Prof Maria Zambon, Director of Reference Microbiology Services at PHE, explained that bats are a known source of great diversity of coronaviruses; it remains unknown whether bats were the direct source of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) or if there was an intermediate species involved. Prof Zambon emphasised the key role academic research has played in helping the understanding of the biology of bat viruses, a commonly neglected area of virology.