Over the last months we've been looking at every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2. One of the techniques we've been using is animation – to describe the virus, its origin and measures to contain it. We began by going right back to basics and asking: what is a virus?

One of the main questions of the pandemic has been where this new virus came from. Phylogenetic analysis is a way of understanding the evolutionary history of an organism. Since the beginning of the pandemic, researchers all over the world have been using it to trace the origins of SARS-CoV-2. 

The best way to defeat COVID-19 is to develop a vaccine against the virus that causes it. We looked into the history of vaccines, how they work, how they are produced and how long we may have to wait for one.

While we wait for a vaccine we need other techniques to balance the needs of controlling the virus and opening up society, one technique that will assist in opening-up form lockdown is contact tracing. That's where data systems and mobile technology keep track of whether we've come into contact with the virus and alert us if we need to isolate.