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Recently, I& #39;ve seen a couple postings for primate fieldwork positions starting in the next few months--including volunteer field positions, camp manager positions, and postdoc positions.
They are all in locations with catarrhines--ie, African/Asian monkeys and apes that have the same ACE2 receptors as thus, and thus, likely have a similar infection risk to COVID19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7239060/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...
I& #39;m baffled that PIs are going ahead with what appeaers to be recruiting international candidates for fieldwork positions in a global pandemic. I agree with what @mjcreid lays out here about the risks travel and fieldwork can pose: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.23161">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
There are some arguments for continuing fieldwork, detailed here--but they should prioritize paying local personnel and supporting and protecting local communities, NOT sending new international staff in who could potentially bring in COVID19. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.23173">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
I hope that they are requiring strict quarantine procedures, strong masking policies, maintaining 10m+ distancing from primates--but with international travel and travel from city centers to field sites, there is a huge risk of bringing COVID19 to rural sites.
And there is a huge risk of accidentally introducing a disease that could decimate endangered primate populations.
Also, recruiting volunteers for year long research positions was ridiculous under normal circumstances, but during a global pandemic, recruiting for international travel and requiring volunteers to pay their own health insurance etc. seems particularly cruel.
