In what many see as fallout from the concern that researchers studying bat viruses may have triggered the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has prematurely ended a $125 million program aimed at identifying viruses in animals that might harm humans.
USAID launched the program, known as the Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens – Viral Zoonoses (DEEP VZN), in October 2021. It tapped the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health at Washington State University (WSU) to lead a consortium that planned to work in up to 12 foreign countries over 5 years. Goals included training people in those countries to safely collect and characterize viruses found in animals, and to identify and develop strategies to thwart pathogens that might gain the capacity to jump to humans and spark a global pandemic.
