The UK's Plan to Outsmart Pandemics

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) has been working on a clever plan. They want to spot the next big disease before it spreads. How? By teaming up with a company called Oxford Nanopore. This company has a super-fast way to read DNA, which can help find dangerous infections quickly. The NHS, Oxford Nanopore, Genomics England, and UK Biobank are all working together on this. The idea is to use this fast DNA reading to spot viruses and other nasty bugs within hours of an outbreak. This could help stop a pandemic before it starts. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, said the NHS was already struggling when COVID-19 hit. So, they don't want history to repeat itself. This new partnership will help scientists keep an eye on new threats. This new technology has already been tested at St Thomas' Hospital and will now spread to more NHS sites. Oxford Nanopore will work with data from Genomics England and UK Biobank to make this system even better.