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And more each year. >> in a lab, researchers in berkeley, california, are looking for clues on how to help humans fight viruses like covid-19. >> there is actually a lot we can learn from bats. this group of animals that's been around for millions of years. how can we look at their history with viruses and take that knowledge, and think about therapeutics and treatments for ourselves? >> what is it about bats that allows some of them to host these viruses, without showing any illness? >> that's the question that cara brooke is trying to answer. brooke is a disease ecologist who began studying ...

>> the same adaptation, also, favor them to carry virus. >> it doesn't appear that they get sick, or very sick, when they are carrying viruses that can be deadly in other people and animals. >> so, could studying bat immunology help us, humans, create possible treatments to fight this current and future pandemics? what do you think is the greatest challenge in terms of finding a treatment or cure for these viruses? >> well, to my mind, the greatest challenge is the number of unknown viruses that are out there. i mean, we think there are about 1.7 million unknown viruses of the type that can ge...

Among bat researchers, there is a concern that humans will give covid-19 to bats. >> emerging infectious diseases can go both ways. right? we do know that some other animals can get covid-19. for instance, the tigers at the bronx zoo. >> for now, most research involving handling of bats across the u.s. has been put on hold, because currently humans are potentially the bigger threat to bats. want to sell the best burger in every zip code?

>> doctors feared the cluster of atypical pneumonia patients in wuhan might be infected with the same family of viruses that caused the outbreak of sars acute respiratory syndrome. >> more and more people were getting infected. we started to see on chinese social media in particular, the concern was growing. >> in new york, ecohealth alliance, a nonprofit organization devoted to tracking emerging diseases, began to take notice. >> we started to get our first inkling that something unusual was happening by looking to social media in china. they mentioned there was an unusual cluster of respirat...

Considered one of the world's top emerging disease experts, to find the source of the deadly outbreak. these virus hunters were pursuing a theory that bats could be the origin of sars. the team headed to the hunan region of southern china to try to solve the mystery of sars. >> shi and other researchers started exploring caves in southern china, looking for bats that could have been the origin of that first sars outbreak. >> dr. john epstein was a researcher on that expedition. >> when we go into an environment like a bat cave to catch bats, we have to protect ourselves. that includes gloves, ...