Scientists are concerned that new COVID-19 variants popping up around the globe will evolve and could potentially thwart the treatments they’ve developed.
Researchers are racing to develop new coronavirus vaccines and treatments, but many of them are running into a problem: a shortage of monkeys.
Unless the government acts to preserve our scientists’ access to nonhuman primates, medical advancement could grind to a halt.
Monkeys are essential for biomedical research.
They’re the most similar nonhuman models to human research subjects. Rhesus macaques, the species most commonly engaged in medical research, share roughly 93 percent of their DNA with humans.
In the case of COVID-19, scientists ...