Why air travel makes deadly disease pandemics less likely

By | November 2, 2018
people in an airport

Globetrotting might have made pandemics less likely

Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images

It’s what keeps microbiologists awake at night: when the next deadly disease breaks out, modern air travel means it will be halfway round the world before we even notice.

Or does it? Mass air travel might instead mean some bad outbreaks are less likely to happen, according to an analysis that turns accepted thinking about pandemics on its head.

The idea that the world is overdue for an outbreak of a fatal infectious disease – aka “the Big One” – is so widely …

New Scientist – Health

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