25 January

Our obsession with travel enormously increases the risk of pandemics. Once a virus knows it has access to millions of fresh hosts around the world through travel, its virulence can magnify hugely, because it no longer needs to be as concerned about killing the host it’s in, there’s fresh hosts easily available. People think I’m bonkers for being negative about travel, but when you try to live a life cut free from meaningful connection to space, here’s what can happen.