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Even before COVID-19 swept across the globe this year, coronaviruses were on scientists’ radar as pathogens that could one day ignite a pandemic. They’d threatened to before—in 2002–03, the SARS virus infected 8,000 people in more than two dozen countries and killed almost 800—and they checked off several specific boxes that emerging infectious disease specialists worry about in a virus. But they’re not the only group of viruses that researchers are concerned about. Influenza and a handful of other viruses have long been viewed as pandemic threats.
One aspect that signals pandemic potential in a virus is having an RNA, rather than DNA, genome. That’s because the process of copying RNA typically doesn’t include a proofreader like DNA replication does, and so RNA viruses have higher mutation rates than the DNA variety. “This means they can change and become more adaptable to human infection and human ...
