Anatomy of a pandemic – Improving preparedness for future pandemics, five years on from the start of COVID-19

In December 2019, an unknown pathogen was detected in Wuhan, China, and within a few weeks it had spread across the world.

There were several reasons why it spread at such lightning speed: the new pathogen, labeled nCoV and then SARS-CoV-2 in February 2020, was a respiratory virus with the potential to affect the entire population; it was highly contagious, and more importantly it did not always cause symptoms, making the task of introducing social distancing measures particularly complicated.

On March 11, 2020, WHO announced that the COVID-19 outbreak was now a pandemic.

Five years after the start of the pandemic, scientists from the Institut Pasteur, who were on the front lines in tackling this respiratory virus, look back at the key milestones in the crisis and the discoveries that helped rein in the virus, with the aim of improving preparedness for future pandemics.

Check out the dedicated press kit