In the first quarter of 2020, the researcher team trained eight different statistical models that predicted which kinds of animals could host betacoronaviruses. Over more than a year, the team then tracked discovery of 40 new bat hosts of betacoronaviruses to validate initial predictions and dynamically update their models. The researchers found that models harnessing data on bat ecology and evolution performed extremely well at predicting new hosts. In contrast, cutting-edge models from network science that used high-level mathematics--but less biological data--performed roughly as well or worse than expected at random.

New Delhi: Since the COVID pandemic, our lives have become unpredictable and uncertain. Ever since the breakout of SARS-CoV-2, many variants of the virus have emerged. In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus pandemic as the world came to terms with the viral infection. Over two years into the pandemic, we wish it had never happened. We wish that we would have at least been warned that our lives would change forever.