96. Viruses, Tests, Vaccines, And More.

It's the month of February, 2020.

It's 6 am in the morning. I'm in a car with two friends, looking for a good spot to surf.

One of them is a scientist. A proper scientist with a PHD and all. He lived in San Francisco, Paris and other places. He recently came back to Uruguay, our home country, to lead a lab at the Pasteur Institute.

He works with viruses. So we start talking about the latest virus fad, the coronavirus, or COVID.

Will it reach Uruguay? The bird flu didn't get big here... will this one?

His face and his tone get serious now. It might. This one is strong. And he is actually working on a novel idea. He wants to develop a type of homegrown test that can be used to track the virus domestically without needed help from other countries. It might get nasty, he says...

Fast forward just two weeks from that moment, and the first coronavirus is detected in Uruguay. And we started testing like crazy. Using the test developed by my friend and his colleagues.

Fast forward a year from then. And Uruguay is one of the few countries in the world that has managed to keep the virus at bay (in relative comparison to other places). We can still meet friends and go surfing. And vaccines will be coming soon.

Today, I have the immense pleasure to interview my friend, Gonzalo Moratorio. He is a Scientist and University Professor at the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo. He has more than 15 years of experience, including postdoctoral training at the Institut Pasteur Paris, and he has made, and continues to make, valuable contributions to viral evolution and applied virology. 

Let’s talk about his story, viruses, vaccines, and more, much more.
 

Enjoy!