Crash Course Outbreak Science Preview

Key Takeaways

we at crash course and our partners operation outbreak and the sabetti lab at the broad institute at mit and harvard want to acknowledge the indigenous people native to the land we live and work on and their traditional and ongoing relationship with this land we encourage you to learn about the history of the place you call home through resources like native land.ca and by engaging with your local indigenous and aboriginal nations through the websites and resources they provide a single virus is about one thousandth the width of a human hair and yet they have the capacity to wreak havoc on nearly all human life on earth although we saw this play out when the covet 19 pandemic emerged in 2020 it still feels a little unbelievable and the same big questions about infectious disease outbreaks we had before covert 19 are as important as ever what do pathogens actually do to us that makes us sick why do societies respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases the way they do and most importantly how can all of us help stop the next one these are the kinds of questions we ask ourselves and what we'll collectively call outbreak science which covers the many ways of looking at epidemics pandemics and really any time an infectious disease starts affecting more people than expected i'm party sabetti and welcome to crash course outbreak science i'm a geneticist who studies pathogens tiny foreign invaders that infect humans and cause disease i've spent over two decades developing genetic tools that shed light on how our relationship to pathogens past and present has shaped our history lives and biology as a professor at harvard university i work with an amazing collective of scientists at the broad institute in cambridge massachusetts my team and i have also spent time in west africa studying deadly viruses like lhasa and ebola in 2014 we found ourselves on the front line of the ebola outbreak in sierra leone using genetic techniques we'd been developing for years we helped to uncover the course of ebola from its animal origins to humans and the mutations that helped it on its path tracking the history of a pathogen through its genes is one fascinating part of outbreak science but outbreak science incorporates lots of disciplines that help explain the mechanics of infectious diseases and how we can intervene to break the cycle of transmission to tackle outbreaks scientists use techniques from epidemiology anthropology microbiology sociology and more to better understand the drivers of diseases and identify the ways we can act to keep ourselves safe in many ways outbreak science is about us and our interactions with each other and the world around us over the course of this series we'll look at where outbreaks come from and how the way we live creates new risks for diseases to spring up and spread amongst us we'll take a trip through the history of outbreaks and how different pathogens from bacteria to viruses have shaped civilizations from their economies to warfare we'll learn how to become germ detectives and equip ourselves with scientific methods that let us spot track defend against and even eradicate the pathogens behind infectious diseases and at the heart of it all we'll understand the people whose actions shape how outbreaks progress including you even though diseases spread from person to person our capacity to connect with one another and create fair sustainable and resilient social systems is one of the most powerful tools we have at keeping ourselves safe from disease i've seen this firsthand on the ground during real outbreaks where health professionals and scientists have collaborated risked their own lives and sometimes even tragically lost them to help others these remarkable acts of teamwork and heroism show the high stakes of outbreaks and the importance of structures that can support us in the face of future outbreaks so we'll have whole episodes about how public health organizations governments and even physical infrastructure like roads and computer networks help different groups tackle and prevent outbreaks in the first place ultimately saving lives because while it's easy to think this all happens automatically as part of scientific progress in reality systems like this come together because individuals make choices to cooperate consider the big picture and learn from one another we hope you'll join us in learning about outbreak science so that together we can go a step further in stopping outbreaks and ensure healthier futures for everyone thanks for watching this episode of crash course outbreak science which was produced by complexly in partnership with operation outbreak in the cebe lab at the broad institute of mit and harvard with generous support from the gordon and betty moore foundation if you want to help keep crash course free for everyone forever you can join our community on patreon