Similarly, in 2008 my team investigated a hemorrhagic fever outbreak with an 80‌‌ percent case fatality rate in Zambia and South Africa. Finding the origin of a viral outbreak can be incredibly difficult, even with full government cooperation and the best available technologies. It’s important to try, because the insights into how a virus emerged may be useful in reducing the risk of future outbreaks. We cannot wait for answers that may never come before doing what must be done to prevent the next pandemic. And yet very little has been done in the wake of this pandemic to better either source of risk.

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