Viral Chatter: Epidemic Intelligence and Bio-Digital Communication

Abstract

This paper explores how a communications model of surveillance is being developed to track viral activity on the frontlines of disease emergence, particularly in Central Africa and East Asia where highly pathogenic viruses, such as HIV, Ebola, avian influenza H5N1, and SARS have spilled over from their natural reservoirs into human populations. The term “viral chatter” is borrowed from the world of espionage and describes the traffic of suspect viruses across species. Like intelligence operatives, virologists monitor the volume of intercepted communications in order to anticipate potential crisis events. In recent years the concept of “viral chatter” has been popularized by the virologist Donald S. Burke and his protégé Nathan Wolfe, founder of the San Francisco-based company Metabiota and the non-profit Global Viral (formerly the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative). The “viral chatter” approach to disease detection draws on different scales of communication analysis. While it involves the collecting and sequencing of viruses, it also makes use of geotechnologies (specifically GIS and GPS-enabled devices), web-based tracking programs, cloud storage, and big data analytics. As a closed-loop model, it calls for the development of a global communications infrastructure where systemic changes will trigger feedbacks, and through which viral data will flow from hotspots in developing countries to processing-hubs behind the lines. This paper examines the consequences of this multi-scalar use of communication as a tool for data collection and for the simultaneous elucidation of biological, social, and synthetic signaling pathways and interference processes: from eavesdropping on viral mutations, to wildlife tracking, interspecies interactions, to online data-processing. The paper concludes by considering the institutional and geopolitical contexts that are shaping this bio-digital cybernetics paradigm in disease prevention.