2024-01-20 04:05:00
Clément Mettling is a virology researcher at the CNRS, at the Institute of Human Genetics in Montpellier where he has worked for 25 years on the HIV coreceptor and more recently on the immune response to SARS-CoV-2. He will speak as part of the conferences organized by the ASTEC-PSL association, this Tuesday January 23 at 7 p.m. (Salle des Verriès), on the theme: History of AIDS and Covid-19.
“Introducing the scientific approach”
The conference will retrace the history of the two epidemics according to the evolution of knowledge in virology. Clément Mettling will introduce the history of virology very briefly then he will show how the modification of the environment and cultural practices favored the explosion of AIDS in the 80s before taking stock of the debate relating to the origin of Covid-19: zoonosis or laboratory leak.
“The interest of my intervention, specifies the researcher, is to introduce the general public to the scientific approach. The path to arriving at the knowledge transmitted remains in my opinion more interesting than the knowledge itself. The origin of AIDS, for example example, can be summed up in one sentence: the virus was born in Africa around the 1930s. But this message is of little interest. The important thing is the complete story. When AIDS appeared in 1981 , all the intellectual baggage necessary to isolate the virus was acquired thanks to an accumulation of discoveries, the last of which dates from 1980. Happy coincidence, so to speak. The first animal reservoir was discovered in 1999. We put 20 years of understanding where AIDS came from.”
An accumulative construction
Progress depends on knowledge which in turn depends on the working tools available. Knowledge is an accumulative construct. Research time is a long time which does not necessarily correspond to media time. “In times of health crisis,” adds Clément Mettling, “politicians ask researchers to mobilize urgently, but as soon as the wave passes, their interest wanes.”
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