WIRED interviews Johnson on Protecting Bats from COVID during research

Dr. Joseph Johnson

WIRED interviewed Dr. Joseph Johnson for a story headlined “Biologists Mask Up to Protect Bats (Yes, Bats) From Covid-19.”

Johnson is assistant professor of Biological Sciences at Ohio University.

While Feller’s team in Maryland is not handling bats at all, in Ohio researchers are allowed to handle them if needed, according to Joseph Johnson, a bat researcher and assistant professor of biology at Ohio University. “I am able to handle bats in some places, yes,” Johnson wrote to WIRED in an email. “In Ohio we have been approved by the state DNR [Department of Natural Resources] to conduct some of our studies, and we exercise an abundance of caution while in the field. (We wear masks, change nitrile gloves between each animal handled, and decontaminate everything that bats come in contact with.)”

Read the story at WIRED.