The global, and American, research programs in health and biology over recent decades have given us inadequate tools to understand the Covid virus as fully and quickly as I think we could have. We need:

• …more basic research on viruses, never mind the virus
• …more basic research on infections, never mind the pathogen, the host, or even the severity of the disease
• …a research center on T cells, another on B cells, another on NK cells, another on the lymph system, if that is what it takes
• For every working vaccine for an existing vaccine there should be 1000 vaccines made up just for the fun of learning what and how and if and everything one learns while making things.
• Pathogen researchers should be producing experimental just-for-fun vaccines like Linux geeks produce operating systems or distros. So when a new pathogen comes along, the best vaccine response, you can order on Amazon.
• Very little of these basic research approaches has been the subject of targeted research. This is the fallacy of targeted research. Targeted research alone is not how we address the Next Big Thing.
• In the US, the NIH,NSF, and all the other research funding and oversight agencies, and the research arms of all the scientific agencies such a the USGS, NOAA, DOE,etc. are INFRASTRUCTURE and their funding should be TRIPLED.

Let’s throw money at this thing!

The global research program in health and biology gave us inadequate tools to understand the Covid virus as fully and quickly as I think we could have.

— Greg Laden (@gregladen) December 31, 2021

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