Abstract
What should the best practices be for modeling zoonotic disease risks, e.g. to anticipate the next pandemic, when background assumptions are unsettled or evolving rapidly? This challenge runs deeper than one might expect, all the way into how we model the robustness of contemporary phylogenetic inference and taxonomic classifications. Different and legitimate taxonomic assumptions can destabilize the putative objectivity of zoonotic risk assessments, thus potentially supporting inconsistent and overconfident policy decisions.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | 7 |
Journal | History and philosophy of the life sciences |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs |
|
State | Published - Mar 2021 |
Keywords
- Covid-19
- Special reservoir hypothesis
- Viral spillover
- Zoonotic disease
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- History
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- History and Philosophy of Science