Right now, we only look at viruses that cause symptoms. Once people started dying from AIDS, HIV was found, but it was completely ignored before anyone died from AIDS. Wouldn't it be great to map viruses before they are a problem? Not just here, but in the whole world, and over time.

There are 264 identified viruses known to infect human beings. Even these are rarely traced, but there are an additional, estimated 800,000 viruses that could jump to humans under the right circumstances.

The Global Immunological Observatory, proposed by Jessica Metcalf(Princeton), and Michael Mina(Harvard) would test hundreds of thousands of blood samples from all over the world every day. It would test them for all antibodies, and then would identify the cause of those antibodies. It essence, it would track all 800,000 viruses throughout the world, whether they are causing harm at that time or not.

It is in the planning phase right now. There are technologies being developed that might be able to drop the GIO down to a billion a year. That may sound like a lot, but it would give us early warning on AIDS, Covid-19, flues, etc. It would easily pay for itself in medical savings, and lives saved.

https://www.economist.com/technology...ger-impossible