UM atUM [S05-ep19]: Viruses, the Invisible Threat
This week on *AUM science*, Yannick Simonin, a virologist at the PCCEI laboratory for Pathogenesis and Control of Chronic and Emerging Infections, talks to us about viruses: what are they, how do they evolve, and what epidemics have occurred in the past and what lies ahead? He answers all these questions in his new book, *Viruses: The Invisible Threat*. A program broadcast every Wednesday on the radio Divergence.
Who doesn’t remember what they were doing on the morning of March 17, 2020? What did you do in those few hours before noon, when Decree No. 2020-260 of March 16, 2020—regulating travel as part of the effort to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus—required everyone to return home and stay there?
1 month and 25 days—that was the duration of that first lockdown. Then came the second: 1 month and 15 days. Then the third: 28 days. Curfews, face shields, masks, hand sanitizer, nasal swabs, exit permits, elbow bumps, schoolyards marked out in squares, lines with 1-meter spacing between people, the daily death toll, pot-and-pan concerts, plexiglass barriers in bars and the “maximum of six” rule, vaccinations at work, the black market for health passes… So many memories that make this period feel unreal, as if we’d lived through a science-fiction scenario. So much so that we sometimes think that if we told our children about it, they wouldn’t believe us.
And yet, there is very little chance—if any at all—that they will grow up in a world without a pandemic. So it won’t be the same—the public may be better prepared, governments may be more proactive, and international research will surely be better coordinated—but there’s no doubt that we’ll have to fight a virus together again, and Yannick Simonin certainly wouldn’t tell us otherwise.
He is a researcher at the PCCEI laboratory for Pathogenesis and Control of Chronic and Emerging Infections and has just published a book with Hygée Publishing titled *Virus: The Invisible Threat*, in which he shows how viruses and major epidemics have always shaped our civilizations and how research is advancing to better anticipate future epidemics. In this in-depth interview, he tells us everything we want to know about viruses.
Read and Listen:
- "Arbovirus," a follow-up article published in Lum magazine and available as a Lumlu podcast
- Also listen to the episode of *AUM science* on the MPox virus with Martine Peeters and Eddy Lusamaki
AtUM , you’ve got the schedule—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Director: Bruno Bertrand
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