On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization was made aware of a cluster of cases of an unknown respiratory disease in the lesser-known Chinese city of Wuhan. The disease was subsequently identified as COVID-19. The rest, as they say, is history. Almost 6.5million lives lost needlessly. Humanity brought to a standstill. The global economy on a knife edge.
We knew so little about this mysterious illness. Rumour lay waste to reality; science fell victim to speculation; time was on the side of neither medics, politicians nor any of us.
Imagine if we had seen it coming. Imagine if we could have identified SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, as soon, or soon after, its first manifestation in humans. We could have contained it.
Kromek Group plc designs, develops and produces x-ray and gamma-ray imaging and radiation detection products for the medical, CBRNe security, Homeland Security and civil nuclear radiation detection markets.