WEBVTT - How It All Started 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:08.320 Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day thirty one 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:13.480 since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today we're bringing 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:17.040 you a special episode of the podcast. It's a close 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.520 look at how the novel coronavirus lived before it entered 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:27.840 humans and who it lived in bats. They are almost 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:31.720 certainly the source of this pandemic, but they may also 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:36.080 hold the clues to stopping the next one. Scientists have 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:41.280 learned that the new coronavirus shares of its genetic makeup 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.720 with the virus previously detected in a kind of bat 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.120 known as the horseshoe bat from the Yu Non province 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:54.240 in China. It turns out these bats are viralogical treasure troves, 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.400 so many of the infectious agents we worry most about 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:05.000 coexist invert dual harmony with these nocturnal creatures. Bloomberg Senior 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.880 editor Jason Gale takes us back to the mid nineteen nineties. 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.960 We're a surprise finding by scientists in Australia led to 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:17.440 the emergence of the Batpack, a group of researchers who 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.720 not only discovered a whole genus of dangerous viruses, but 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.760 found what could be the precursor of the novel coronavirus. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:32.000 They're also laying the groundwork for potential treatments. Here's Jason. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.160 The story of bats and viruses can be traced to 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.600 an Australian veterinarian, Dr Hume Field. The son of a policeman, 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.559 Hume grew up in various parts of the northeastern state 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.920 of Queensland, where he developed a fascination for Australia's native fauna. 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.320 I've always had an interest in animals, and I guess 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.680 growing up as a kid, I can remember my parents 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:07.920 saying our human lives animals. He's going to be a 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.840 vet And this was really a bit of a throwaway 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.120 line because nobody in our family had ever been to university, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.480 led alone to a five year vetinry course. But nonetheless 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.000 the sort of seed took hold, I guess, at least 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.520 with me. When I caught up with him, he was 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.360 in his home office in a leafy coastal area southeast 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.040 of Brisbane. You could hear chattering wildlife and vocal pets, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.400 as well as drought breaking rain. Hu graduated from the 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.400 University of Queensland in six He worked for a couple 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.200 of years in a small animal practice, but his interest 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.440 in wildlife led him to pursue further study in the evenings, 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.000 first in environmental science than a doctorate in the mid 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.040 It allowed him to combine his love of native animals 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.040 with emerging diseases at a time when the state's agricultural authorities, 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.600 we're trying to figure out the source of a deadly 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.000 horsed disease. It was a virus that infected twenty race 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:07.800 horses stable in the Brisbane suburb of hend. It's thought 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.840 to have started when a mare called Drama Series was 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.200 brought to the stables after she had been grazing in 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.520 a field at Cannon Hill, on the other side of 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.200 the Brisbane River. Drama Series died two days later, and 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.840 subsequently all of the other horses fell ill. Thirteen of 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:27.480 them died. What was especially alarming about this disease was 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.640 that it crossed the species barrier. A trainer and another 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.240 person tending to the horses became ill with a flu 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.160 like illness within days of Drama Series death. The stable 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.520 hand recovered, but the trainer died of respiratory and kidney failure. 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.680 The virus was eventually isolated and named Hendra virus after 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.680 the suburb where it was found. Hume was asked to 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.360 help determine how drama series might have caught the virus. 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.280 He went searching the paddock where she had been grazing 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.880 and presumably had become infected. He caught rodents, possums, feral 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.080 cats and reptiles and tested them for hendravirus. When the 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.400 results came back negative, he went searching for clues. By 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:09.680 the people rescuing vulnerable wildlife here in Australia, they're sometimes 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:14.040 referred to as wildlife carries. So when we subsequently broadened 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:19.680 our search and started using wildlife cares as I as 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.479 a conduit if you like, to be able to collect 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.600 samples from sick and injured animals that were in their care. 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.240 And it was in that process, so again quite serendipulous 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.120 that we actually sample. We were sampling kangaroos, we were 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.240 sampling parsons, we were sampling the usual things, ducks, the 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.240 whole range of things that would come into wildlife cares. 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.520 And there were flying foxes. When you sample some flying foxes. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.800 This was over a period of months and lo and behold, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.719 we found antibodies to handra virus and some flying foxes. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.360 So we looked at some more flying foxes, and then 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.680 we looked at some flying foxes in captive populace and 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:02.320 the zoos et cetera. And to how we identified flying 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.800 foxes as being at that stage are possible rest of 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.400 while then we went on to do further studies eventually 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:13.320 detected an isolated virus etcetera, etcetera. And so now flying 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.520 foxes or at least a couple of species of flying 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:20.040 foxes in Australia are recognized as the primary reservoir hosts 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:26.039 of hendrovirus. Flying foxes aren't actually foxes. There are large 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.479 fruit eating bat with a kind of fox like face 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.039 and expression. They weigh up to a couple of pounds 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.080 and their wings can span more than three ft. The 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.599 finding of hendrovirus in bats was important not just because 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.040 it helped identify the pathway by which horses and people 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.200 were being infected. It also made scientists alert to other 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.359 viruses bats could potentially carry. About a year after humid 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.240 the discovery of hendravirus and flying foxes, another opportunity to 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.839 explore the ecology of viruses and bats presented itself, this 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.239 time in Malaysia, where pigs and pig farmers were getting sick. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.839 By mid more than two hundred and sixty five people 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.640 had fallen ill with encephalitis or inflammation of the brain. 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:18.560 Of those cases were fatal. There were also eleven cases 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.719 of either encephalitis or respiratory illness, including one death. In 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:27.000 neighboring Singapore, scientists found the viral source. It was named 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.360 neiper virus, which had turned out was from the same 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.920 family as hendra virus. Hume was asked to help investigate 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.320 the source and wanted someone who was who might be 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.760 able to guide and work with him to find out 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.200 the natural reservoive but so none of we knew about 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.880 hender and a bat stand immediately focused not exclusively, but 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.480 was certainly focused on flying foxes in Malasia, and it 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.719 wasn't too long before we found the evidence of of 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.000 nepavirus in species of flying fox there, just as hendra 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.880 virus did. The discovery of NIPA underscored their risks that 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.839 emerge at the interface of wildlife, farm, animals and humans. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.800 Professor Trevor Drew is the director of the Australian Animal 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.840 Health Laboratory at Geelong, just outside of Melbourne. It's carried 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.920 out key research on both Hendra and Niper viruses. According 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.960 to Trevor, the emergence of Hendra and then Niper identified 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.440 the ways in which batborn viruses can spill over it 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.679 and infect other species. And Nipper virus was a disease 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:36.080 also of fruit bats in Malaysia initially, and that virus 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.880 got into pigs because the they were starting to put 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.720 pig farms into more forested areas, and the feces from 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.200 the bats got into the pig styes and was thought 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.880 to have infected the pigs that way, and it killed 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:55.679 hundreds of pigs, if not thousands of pigs. Nipper isn't 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.640 just confined to Malaysia over the past decade. It's caused 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.600 outbreaks in India and Bangladesh that have killed dozens of people. 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.520 We also now as also know from incidents in Bangladesh 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.280 of outbreaks of NIPA virus that you don't need the 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.160 pick that the that the bat can actually also infect 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.960 humans directly via drinking out of vessels of palm sap 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.400 that are put onto the tree to to harvest the 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.040 palm sap, and people drink this palm sap, but so 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.360 does the bat, and they will come down and the 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.680 saliva from the bat can contaminate the palm sap and 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.480 infect the human directly. So we know that that that 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.440 is one incident, but certainly in Malaysia now they're very 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.880 very careful not to have pig farms near bat roosts, 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.160 and even more dramatic outbreak occurred just a few years later. 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:53.120 Severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS emerged in southern China 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.160 in two thousand and two. It's a deadly a cousin 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.360 of COVID nineteen. They're quickly spread across the world. Hum 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:05.600 Field was usked to help investigate its source. And because 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:11.160 of our experience with bats and hand virus and neatle virus, 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.320 and growing awareness that there seemed to be something special 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:21.760 about bats and these spillover viruses, then we hypothesize that 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:26.600 bats may play a role in the the origins of stars, 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.040 and so we went down that track. It's interesting to 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:35.120 reflect on the significance of the discovery of species of 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:41.880 bats and flying foxes as the natural reservoir of hendra virus, 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:47.800 because really that finding, I think has potentially colored the 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.960 identification of bats or you know, sort of underlying the 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:56.000 identification of various species of bats being associated with this 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.920 suite of other emerging diseases that we're seeing over time. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.520 If we have the group that Hume just referred to 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.439 also includes a bowl of viruses and lists of virus 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.600 which causes rabies, as well as a number of coronaviruses, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.600 including stars and most likely the one responsible for the 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.760 COVID nineteen pandemic. So what is it about bats that 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:25.120 makes them such great virus vectors. That's a quite unique 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.959 if you think about it in terms of them being 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:34.319 a mammal that can fly. So so bats are mammals, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.320 they produce milk, they cyclely young, they but they've got 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:43.280 this amazing evolutionary adaptation or ability to be able to 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:51.040 fly so highly mobile. They also typically live in large populations, 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:55.080 colonies roost, whether it's the big fruit bats or flying foxes, 0:10:55.440 --> 0:11:01.560 whether it's small microbats in caves, and typically these groups 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:07.400 have mixed species as well. Um they're relatively long lived 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.720 animals as as a taxa. You know, flying fox are 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:15.360 certainly recorded I think in captivity to live well into twenties. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.720 Certainly wouldn't live that long in nature, but certainly, you know, 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:23.000 they live for years, so all of these factors are 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:29.920 very attractive for mammalian virus survival and dissemination, if you like. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.760 According to Hume, bats have evolved and adapted to coexist 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.400 with the viruses that infect them, and so the thinking 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.640 was that, well, you know, these are just viruses of bats, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.240 and the bats are used to them because they've evolved 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.560 with them, and that's why the bats don't get sick 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.640 with these viruses. But if they spill into other naive, 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:56.040 immunologically naive species, then they have a dramatic, typically a 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.520 dramatic and often fatal infection. But more recent people have 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.840 dug a bit further to try to understand if there 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.080 isn't doing something else going on with bats, and it 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.480 seems that there isn't. Hume now works as a science 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.520 and policy adviser with the Eco Health Alliance. It's a 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.720 New York based NGO that works to protect wildlife and 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:21.479 public health from the emergence of disease. Spill over events 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.679 are becoming more risky. Bats, as we heard, are coming 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.440 into closer contact with farm animals, but they're also coming 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.200 into closer contact with humans. A key reason for that 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.559 is that bats are losing their habitat. Critically, they're losing 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:48.920 their natural food source. What you're hearing is the sound 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.839 of gray headed flying foxes roosting. It's dusk and I'm 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.240 sitting on a grassy bank of the Torrens River in 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.800 the center of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. I'm 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.880 literally a stone throw from the University of Adelaide, my 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.200 Alma Marter behind me, and the Adelaide Zoo on the 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.160 other side of the river. This is a popular place 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.240 for the twenty thousand bats hanging upside down from the 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.000 eucalyptus trees above me. It's a familiar place for Dr 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.960 Mark Ship, Australia's chief ventinarian, who is based in Canberra 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.280 but also grew up in South Australia. Mark is the 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.920 president of the World Organization for Animal Health. He told 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.840 me that bats have taken up residency in Adelaide and 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:34.840 other urban centers, but not by choice. Yes, almost every 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:40.439 city in Australia now has a resident roost of flying foxes, 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:44.280 and the fruiting and the flowering trees that these bats 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:49.280 normally feed on have been largely removed from rural Australia, 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:54.800 and so they've been forced into urban centers and suburban 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.960 parkland where there is some flowering trees and some fruiting trees, 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.800 but these are not the preferred diet of the flying 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.000 foxes and they're putting those flying foxes under stress. We've 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.320 seen a number of incidents in Australia over recent years 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:15.400 with large scale mortalities of flying foxes due to heat events. 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:18.679 Here in Canberra we had a large hail storm event 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:24.200 which killed over three hundred flying foxes. It reflects that 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.640 their their in centers where they would normally not be present, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.440 and that they're under stress when they're in those centers. 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.280 There's another concern with mats roosting places like this where 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.160 horses are being kept less than a mile from here. 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:45.720 For us, that the concern is that where we have parkland, 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.600 we often have horses. And we know that flying foxes 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:54.720 can transmit hendra virus two horses, and that those horses 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.000 in turn can transmit that virus to humans, and and 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.320 that's a fatal ease of both horses and of humans. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.640 And then and then that there is the risk that 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:10.680 the bats themselves will will transmit directly to human populations, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.440 and there are a number of coronaviruses and other viruses 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.520 that bats carry and can transmit to the human population, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.720 but there are other consequences of the loss of that habitat. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:28.680 While these animals can carry some pretty nasty viruses, they 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:34.440 perform functions vital for the Australian ecosystem. They play very 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.600 important roles in terms of insect control, of pollination and 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:43.120 of seed dispersal. The role that they play in keeping 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:48.520 down insect numbers which and and insects can transmit disease, 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.960 particularly in Northern Australia, is very important. And then that 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.960 the role that they play in pollinating plants as they 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.480 move between plants and then dispersing see it's where they 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:04.080 eat fruits and disperse the sards so that those plants 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.840 become established in other areas is very important and is 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:12.040 a role that no other participant in the ecosystem can ploy. 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.600 In the mammalian world, lifespan is generally proportional to body 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:27.640 size and metabolic rate. That's defined both these rules. One 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.000 bat species weighing just seven grams or a quarter of 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.680 an ounce, can live for more than forty years. It's 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.840 one of a number of quirks of these critics, Professor 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.440 Linda Wang has been unlocking the secrets of bats since 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:46.280 the nine He was the scientist who isolated and characterized 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:51.400 hendra virus and identified its viralogical cousin neiper Actually it 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.720 was Lindfa who named the genus to which they both belong, hennepervirus. 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.000 Back then he was working at the Australian Animal Health 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.040 Laboratory just outs out of Melbourne. He now heads the 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.840 Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Singapore's Duke and US Medical School. 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.399 For the past thirteen years, he's devoted his career to 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:15.960 studying bat biology and bat immunology, particularly its defense against viruses. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.639 He's brought a number of researchers along with him in Australia, 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.640 Singapore and now China, where he was born and did 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:27.280 his undergrad degree in scientific Circles. Lympha is sometimes known 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.600 as the Batman. People give me the nickname of Batman 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.960 that I tried to cut them, that I actually don't 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.840 started bad bat. Morris Lympha serves on the World Health 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.200 Organization's Emergency Committee, advising the Director General on the current 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.960 COVID nineteen pandemic. It's a reflection of the knowledge he 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.240 in his twenty person lab have amassed on these animals, 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.320 and we have been focusing on the question of why that's, 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.600 why that's are so different, why they can carry so 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.280 many whiles and themselves do not get sick, and why 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.320 that's lives so long, consider they're living in my moments, 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.760 and also the strap they have during fly and also 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.600 the pastern and they're exposed is much much more than 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.960 a non flying mammal. It turns out that the immune 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.800 system of these flying mammals is different to that of 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:17.680 terrestrial mammals. Bat's react to infections at an earlier stage, 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.520 arresting them before they cause any disease. That enables bats 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:28.200 to avoid the damaging inflammatory immune response. Other mammals, including humans, 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.600 often mount in response to virulent infections. So our current 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:39.680 working hypothesis is that that's have a much better the Torrents. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:44.919 Pathologists studying COVID nineteen and other pathogenic viruses have observed 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.520 that when the body initially recognizes an infection, various white 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.400 blood cells that consume pathogens and help heal damage tissue 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.159 act as first responders. In some severe infections, the body's 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.639 effort to heal itself maybe two robust, leading to the 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.960 destruction of not just virus infected cells, but healthy tissue. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:11.160 It's that inflammatory response that ends up being deadly. Bats 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.560 don't suffer the same fate that can defend themselves launch 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.560 this inflammation, but they don't go over. Okay. So this 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.400 is a very big area of research, and I think 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:26.240 we human can live Lympha says he's convinced bats offer 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:30.240 important insights into the regulation of the immune system that 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.879 may inform ways the human body can better tackle COVID 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.960 nineteen and other viral diseases. So my slogan now is 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.280 my study is basically learning from that that have so 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:45.120 much of the teachers For one thing, lymph is intrigued 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.320 that species of that that way is just seven grams, 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:50.879 has a heart that beats more than one thousand times 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.040 per minute during flight. It flies for five to eight 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.600 hours daily and can live for forty three years. This 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.480 is all down with the same heart without any medication, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:06.119 with any in the hygiene. You imagine that, right, It's incredible. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:10.480 It's little wondered that Lindfa is working with cardiologists who 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.080 study the heart muscles of bats just one of a 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:19.040 number of medical disciplines he's recruited into his backpack have 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:23.159 been able to mobilize, not in passion disease to people, genomics, people, 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:28.240 immunologists and the case of bologists and now cardiologists are collaboys. 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.520 Need just started back. My personal dream you have enough money, 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.200 is to statue a bad institute. I think that we 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.320 have lots to learn from back that can help us 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:42.119 identify what viruses of pandemic potential are lurking in nature, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.840 as well as ways we might be able to mitigate 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:48.400 their threat. They're just one example of how humans are 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:54.920 profoundly affected by what happens in global ecosystems. To anticipate, prevent, 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.720 and respond to disease threats like COVID nineteen means taking 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.399 an increasingly why right angled look at the natural world. 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.680 And that's it for this special episode of the Prognosis 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.320 Daily Edition. For more on the pandemic from our bureaus 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:21.960 around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus, and 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.480 if you like the podcast, please take a moment to 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.120 rate us and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.280 or Spotify. It helps more listeners find our global reporting. 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.840 The Prognosis Daily edition is hosted by Me Laura Carlson. 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.159 The show was produced by Me. Top foreheads Jordan Gaspore 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:46.200 and Magnus Henriksson. Reporting by Jason Gale. Original music by 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:50.800 Leo sidran Our editors are Francesca Levi and Rick Shine. 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:56.080 Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.