The tools of forensic science, like DNA analysis, the use of sequencing, RNA testing and PCR testing are being used to:
- Reveal the genome of the virus. This is done by a process called DNA sequencing. Knowing the genome allows scientists to know how the virus functions, and to identify suspected unknown viruses.
- Decoding the protein that enables the virus to latch onto human cells has given immunologists a tool for creating a vaccine that blocks that protein.
- Testing relies on identifying RNA and DNA pieces as well as antibodies associated with the virus.
These are the same tools used by criminologists who use these technologies to match victims, evidence and suspects.
- Contact tracing of the people a known case or carrier of Covid-19 is another tool of forensic medicine, this time epidemiology.
Getting the Covid-19 virus under control will require the cooperation of the public as scientists rush to use these technologies to create vaccines and antiviral drugs, while containing the virus through tracing.
