Scientists predicted the possible outbreak of the coronavirus a year ago (March 2019) before the actual outbreak becomes a pandemic in January 2020.

In the abstract of the research work titled “Bat Coronavirus in China’, scientists wrote “it is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China. Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimizes the impact of such future outbreaks in China.”

Somehow this warning was not given sufficient attention.

This story teaches some important lessons:

1) Listen to research,
2) Work TOGETHER.

Reference:
Fan, Yi, Kai Zhao, Zheng-Li Shi, and Peng Zhou. 2019. ‘Bat Coronaviruses in China.” Viruses 11, no. 3 (2019): 210. Accessed 08, 2020. https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/3/210#