In the HN headline, the comma after "pandemic" makes it seem like the Arctic zombie viruses are also sparking terrifying new scientists. "Scientists" should either have "warn" after it like the original Guardian headline does, or the comma should be a colon. Source: me, an editor, and also easily amused at 5am.
An Institute of Virology collecting, warehousing and doing gain of function experiments on Methuselah viruses, and one of the altered viruses creating a global pandemic, is the threat I'm most concerned about.
NIH is probably already funding it somewhere. What were they studying at the biolabs in the Ukraine?
Threat of outbreak from microbes trapped in permafrost for millennia raised by increased Siberian shipping activity
Wouldn't these viruses be way behind the times in evolutionary terms?
Maybe, maybe not.
Evolution is not necessarily linear. Theoretically, it's possible for a virus to die out after which the host's defenses against that virus would be pruned by evolution due to them harming fitness (no use for them anymore while still costing energy).
Very eloquent. I wish someone had explained it so well as a student.