Science & technology | Covid-19

All around the world, covid surveillance is faltering

That, rather than the surge of cases in China, is the main reason for worry

January 5th is the third anniversary of the day that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in China, isolated a coronavirus which had caused a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases in one of the city’s hospitals. This new virus, named SARS-CoV-2 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has subsequently infected most of the world’s population. In parts of Europe the percentage of people who have never caught it is probably in single digits.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Fail unsafe”

From the January 7th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Science & technology

A person sleeping. The frame is split between night and day.

Does melatonin work for jet lag?

It can help. But it depends where you’re going

A network of pixelated hearts

Training AI models might not need enormous data centres

Eventually, models could be trained without any dedicated hardware at all


Workers harnessed unto the facade of the Museum of the Future, United Arab Emirates.

How the Gulf’s rulers want to harness the power of science

A stronger R&D base, they hope, will transform their countries’ economies. Will their plan work?


Cancer vaccines are showing promise at last

Trials are under way against skin, brain and lung tumours

New firefighting tech is being trialled in Sardinia’s ancient forests

It could sniff out blazes long before they spread out of control

Can Jeff Bezos match Elon Musk in space?

After 25 years, Blue Origin finally heads to orbit, and hopes to become a contender in the private space race