Since COVlD-19, scientists have been looking ahead to the next potential global pandemic—and some believe it could come from the Arctic.

As climate change accelerates, permafrost and glaciers are melting, potentially releasing ancient, dormant microbes—often called “zombie viruses”—that have been frozen for tens of thousands of years. Some of these have already been revived in labs, like the Pithovirus sibericum (30,000 years old) and Pacmanvirus lupus (from a 27,000-year-old wolf).

In 2016, thawed anthrax spores from a frozen reindeer carcass led to a deadly outbreak in Siberia. Continues…