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Covid-19: are pandemics becoming more common?
16 June 2020
Kate Jones, Chair of Ecology and Biodiversity at UCL, and working with UCL East on using the campus as a Living Lab, has been taking a prominent role in advancing public knowledge about coronavirus.
As coronavirus spreads around the world, Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity Kate Jones has been educating about bats and the transmission of viruses between animals. Most recently, she's been warning people that "biodiversity loss can create landscapes that increase risky human-wildlife contact and increase the chances of certain viruses, bacteria and parasites spilling over into people."
Professor Kate Jones is the academic lead of UCL East's Nature-Smart Centre, which will focus on better understanding our dependencies on natural systems and how we can operate within safe and sustainable ecological limits.
She also discussed her research further in a virtual Lunch Hour Lecture, delivered in May 2020, available to watch on demand.
Find her comments in the news below:
6 June - BBC: This is not the last pandemic
19 May - Guardian Podcast: Covid-19: are pandemics becoming more common?
15 May - Sky News: Deforestation 'increases the risk of animal-human disease transmission'
BBC: Biology of the new coronavirus
The Guardian: 'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?
New Scientist Weekly: Coronavirus special: disaster preparation, environmental change and disease emergence
CNN: Bats are not to blame for coronavirus. Humans are
CBS News: Human impact on the environment may make pandemics more likely, experts warn
Washington Post: The next pandemic is already coming, unless humans change how we interact with wildlife, scientists say
BBC World Service: 'The Newsroom' (from 14 mins 25 secs)
BBC Radio 4: 'Today Programme' (from 52 mins)