Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I'm Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine.
Today I'm here in the deep, dark forest — or as close as I can find the deep, dark forest in suburban Connecticut — to talk about viruses and how they can jump from animals into humans. The zoonotic transmission of viruses is responsible for a host of epidemics and pandemics, including, of course, the most recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. But it's happened before, and it will happen again.
