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Radio interview/podcast about new preprint

April 24, 2025

Zach was interviewed with co-author Florence Débarre (Sorbonne) about a new preprint we published on early SARS-CoV-2 sequence diversity for BBC News’ Science in Action. Check out the beginning of the podcasts for our comments on the preprint and stick around until the end to learn about a gruesome carnivorous caterpillar.

Here is a summary of the beginning of the program:

Wet market SARS CoV-2 origins revisited Last week, the website covid.gov looked very different, containing information on coping with covid and US research. This week it leads you to a White House webpage outlining the lab-leak hypothesis – that the pandemic was the result of dodgy lab work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The scientific consensus however continues to suggest a zoonotic crossover event. And a preprint recently published by Zach Hensel of ITQB NOVA (NOVA University Lisbon) and Florence Débarre of the Sorbonne, adds new early sequences to the evidence base. As they suggest, it doesn’t seal the debate, but it certainly doesn’t surprise the scientists.


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