GL12

TB and COVID-19: two sides of the same coin?

I Comas(2)

1: CABIMER 2: Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia - Spanish National Research Council

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the way to do and communicate science. Never in history have we learned so much about a pathogen in such a short time. By contrast, we are still revisiting old dogmas in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a pathogen living with us for millennia. In this talk I will review what we have learnt about SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology, evolution and biology in the last two years, and how it can inform M. tuberculosis research. I will also discuss the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the light of the dynamics of other pandemics and infectious diseases of global health concern.