Let’s start thinking about the likely next new virus. No, it’s not too early, even though the covid-19 pandemic is still at an early stage. During the SARS epidemic in 2004, the world largely failed to anticipate the likely next virus and is now paying the price. Emerging human diseases — including not just covid-19 and SARS, but also AIDS, Ebola and Marburg — don’t arise spontaneously in humans.