Monday 11 May 2020

Climate change could unlock Ice Age bugs that spark the world’s next pandemic

Humans could be exposed to ‘eradicated’ or completely new microbes because of climate change thawing (Picture: Getty)

Dr Dennis Carroll – who appears in the Netflix documentary Pandemic – said we should be ‘should be exceedingly cautious about underestimating the potential threats’ that reborn germs could pose. Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Dr Carroll – dubbed ‘the man who saw the pandemic coming’ – also warned that diseases spread from wildlife should also be seen as a global health concern following the coronavirus outbreak. His intervention comes as scientists today published new research on how rising temperatures melting ‘permafrost’ Arctic soil could give a new lease of life to dormant microbes. Those bacteria and viruses, frozen for thousands of years, could potentially include diseases which humanity has previously ‘eradicated’ – and ones we have never encountered. Dr Carroll explained: ‘The world is faced with the very real prospect that ancient microbes which have long lay dormant beneath the frozen tundra will be given a new life with climate change and the thawing of the Arctic north. 

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