Open Data Reloaded

It’s late December 2019, and cases of severe respiratory infections are increasing in the Chinese city of Wuhan. On Christmas Day, doctors send a sample taken from patients to a laboratory that specializes in the genetic sequencing of bacteria and viruses. The result comes three days later: the sample contains a new member of the coronavirus group. Chinese and Australian researchers work around the clock to determine the virus’s genetic code. Only two weeks later, on January 10, 2020, they publish the entire gene sequence and make it available on the Internet to the global research community. This enables every