Scientists warn long-frozen 'zombie virus' is 'public health threat' amid thaw - New York Post

According to the preliminary paper, global warming is causing vast swaths of the permafrost — permanently frozen ground covering one-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere — to irreversibly thaw.

“Part of this organic matter also consists of revived cellular microbes (prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes) as well as viruses that remained dormant since prehistorical times,” the researchers write.

This shatters the previous record held by a 30,000-year-old virus discovered by the same team in Siberia in 2013.

“If the authors are indeed isolating live viruses from ancient permafrost, it is likely that the even smaller, simpler mammalian viruses would also survive frozen for eons,” University of California virologist Eric Delwart told New Scientist.