Covid-19 is the first pandemic in which molecular genomics has been applied at scale. Thanks to this science, researchers were able to publish the genome of the novel coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, in record time and keep pace with the emergence of new variants. And thanks to the allied science of molecular phylogenetics, a method for reading the deep evolutionary history of viruses, we have been able to trace its divergence from other known coronaviruses, including other Sars-like coronaviruses harboured by bats and whose genetic codes are stored in labs in China and other parts of the world.
Few writers are able to understand the strings of amino acids that give these viruses their distinctive codes, let alone relate them to other Sars-like viruses. And even fewer possess the literary gifts necessary to make the genomics comprehensible to lay readers. Fortunately, David Quammen, whose previous works include books on Ebola and other viruses that periodically infect humans, is one of them.
