Melting ice may bring the next pandemic, according to recent data. Genetic analysis of soil and lake sediments from Lake Hazen, the largest high Arctic freshwater lake in the world, suggests the risk of a virus infecting a host for the first time may be higher close to melting glaciers.
Source: The Guardian, October 18, 2022. Link. For instance, last year, researchers at Ohio State University in the US announced they had found genetic material from 33 viruses – 28 of them novel – in ice samples taken from the Tibetan plateau in China. Based on their locations, the viruses were estimated to be approximately 15,000 years old.