{"title":"SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology, kinetics, and evolution: A narrative review.","authors":"Samuel Alizon, Mircea T Sofonea","doi":"10.1080/21505594.2025.2480633","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since winter 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has emerged, spread, and evolved all around the globe. We explore 4 y of evolutionary epidemiology of this virus, ranging from the applied public health challenges to the more conceptual evolutionary biology perspectives. Through this review, we first present the spread and lethality of the infections it causes, starting from its emergence in Wuhan (China) from the initial epidemics all around the world, compare the virus to other betacoronaviruses, focus on its airborne transmission, compare containment strategies (\"zero-COVID\" <i>vs</i>. \"herd immunity\"), explain its phylogeographical tracking, underline the importance of natural selection on the epidemics, mention its within-host population dynamics. Finally, we discuss how the pandemic has transformed (or should transform) the surveillance and prevention of viral respiratory infections and identify perspectives for the research on epidemiology of COVID-19.</p>","PeriodicalId":23747,"journal":{"name":"Virulence","volume":"16 1","pages":"2480633"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Virulence","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2025.2480633","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/4/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Since winter 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has emerged, spread, and evolved all around the globe. We explore 4 y of evolutionary epidemiology of this virus, ranging from the applied public health challenges to the more conceptual evolutionary biology perspectives. Through this review, we first present the spread and lethality of the infections it causes, starting from its emergence in Wuhan (China) from the initial epidemics all around the world, compare the virus to other betacoronaviruses, focus on its airborne transmission, compare containment strategies ("zero-COVID" vs. "herd immunity"), explain its phylogeographical tracking, underline the importance of natural selection on the epidemics, mention its within-host population dynamics. Finally, we discuss how the pandemic has transformed (or should transform) the surveillance and prevention of viral respiratory infections and identify perspectives for the research on epidemiology of COVID-19.
期刊介绍：
Virulence is a fully open access peer-reviewed journal. All articles will (if accepted) be available for anyone to read anywhere, at any time immediately on publication.
Virulence is the first international peer-reviewed journal of its kind to focus exclusively on microbial pathogenicity, the infection process and host-pathogen interactions. To address the new infectious challenges, emerging infectious agents and antimicrobial resistance, there is a clear need for interdisciplinary research.
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