Scientists Are Trying to Spot New Viruses Before They Cause Pandemics Science Times Feb. 15, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, Feb. 13, 2021. Scientists want to build a weather system for viruses. It would require a big financial investment, plus buy-in from doctors, hospitals and blood banks. (Kayana Szymczak/The New York Times)Kayana Szymczak/NYT Back in the summer, Dr. Michael Mina made a deal with a cold storage company. With many of its restaurant clients closed down, the firm had freezers to spare. And Mina, a public health researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, had a half-million vials of plasma from human blood coming to his lab from across the country, samples dating back to the carefree days of January 2020.