What can you do to reduce the risk of a virus spreading?

Written by OneHealthPact on February 7, 2023. Posted in News.

Interview with Marion Koopmans

What can YOU do to reduce the risk of a virus spreading? We need to start thinking about what we have learned from the pandemic. What is our contribution in the creation of these kinds of problems? Actueel Nieuws interviewed Marion Koopmans, professor in Virology and Scientific Director of the PDPC, about her appearances in the media during the height of the pandemic, the book she wrote with her son and her view of our future in virology.

“I think we need to look more fundamentally at where this is coming from. The likelihood of these kinds of outbreak of viruses is increasing because of how the world is evolving. There are more and more people. We’re crammed with animals. We are mining nature where there are wild animals, where infections come from. That’s one element and the second element is that because of how connected the world is, if something jumps over somewhere, it can immediately spread worldwide. That’s not going to change, but that means we have to start asking ourselves seriously, what that means for how we deal with it. I think we actually need to think much more structurally about the fact that we are surrounded by viruses, that that sometimes causes major problems, and that we are in part spreaders ourselves. So what can you do yourself to reduce those risks is a discussion that we really need to start working on together.”

“Enjoy that there is plenty of wiggle room again, but also start thinking together about what we are really learning from this about our contribution to the creation of these kinds of problems.”