To research my story, I paid a visit to the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University. On the day I dropped by, Ian Lipkin and his colleagues were very busy:

Some of the research that was going on that day–specifically, the research on JFK bushmeat–was published today in the journal PLOS One. The Columbia researchers collaborated with a network of other scientists at the Centers for Disease Control, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Tufts University, the American Museum of National History, and the EcoHealth Alliance to do the first pilot study of the viruses that are carried from country to country by the wildlife trade.

They undertook the study because many of the world’s worst diseases are the result of pathogens