Get to know us!

Hello everyone!

We are group 2 formed by Annick, Femke, Gabriel, and Nerea. In this blog, we will be writing about emerging infectious diseases. Our key message is:

Post-corona-pandemic: keeping track of a complicated matter in a relaxed way

3 years later, the COVID-19 pandemic is still considered one of the most important turning points of the XXIst century. Although COVID-19 is behind us, we are never done with new outbreaks. For example, avian flu and other infectious diseases are on the rise and current factors like climate change and biodiversity loss do have a big effect on this. After the corona-pandemic, everyone does suffer from COVID fatigue: people don’t want to read about what they need to do to prevent the virus spread or about a new lockdown coming. Therefore, the goal of our articles is not to persuade or scare you, but rather inform in a casual and accessible way about new upcoming diseases and the reason some diseases are emerging. Diseases are never done with use but not every virus causes directly a pandemic or a new lockdown. However, we do believe that education is key and knowledge is power and therefore we think it is important to keep communicating about emerging infectious diseases

Introducing ourselves:

Annick
Hi everyone! My name is Annick and I am currently in the second year of the master Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences. In the first year of my master’s, I did a 9-month internship in the lab to study viruses. I noticed that while science is ultimately for everyone, researchers often overlook the importance of communicating science to the public. This made me want to dive deeper into the field of science communication. I will tell you more about a topic related to the interest in viruses I gained during my previous internship: the rise of bird flu.

Femke
Hello everyone, my name is Femke and I am a second-year master’s student of Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences at Utrecht University. I enjoy doing scientific research, but I like translating the research to a general audience even more. I think it is essential to inform people and give them the information they need. I will tell you more about the HPV vaccine and why boys did not get the chance to get vaccinated until last year.

Gabriel
Hi! My name is Gabriel and I am a first-year master’s student of Bio-Inspired Innovation at Utrecht University. I like to connect basic science with public interests and come up with original ideas from people from different backgrounds. I believe that not just ideas are interesting but also how you communicate them, that is why I am following this subject. I will tell you more about the Marburg Virus, a virus similar to Ebola that has recently started to spread out more. Should we worry about it or not?

Nerea
I’m Nerea Rubio and I come from the Basque Country. I have a general biology background and am currently doing the Environmental Biology master, Ecology and Natural Resources Management track. After going through the COVID-19 pandemic, my interest in how emerging infectious diseases and the climate crisis were connected grew. I realized that this is a perspective that is not talked about as much as it should be in non-scientific circles. Therefore, the topic of my article will revolve around how climate hazards caused by the relentless emission of greenhouse gases have led to outbreaks of infectious diseases.