A molecular epidemiologist from UPLB explained how pandemics, such as COVID-19, are caused by declining biodiversity.
Dr. Mary Grace B. Dacuma, an assistant professor at the Animal Biology Division of the Institute of Biological Sciences, discussed this during the third leg of the Biodiversity and Resiliency Webinar Series of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) on June 19.
Dr. Dacuma, a PhD holder from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, shed light on the concept of pathogen spillover, or the transmission of the agents of infectious diseases such as virus, to humans.