The following commentary has been provided by Nicolas Locker, Professor of Virology, University of Surrey (UK) and Alfredo Garzino-Demo, an Editor-in-Chief of our journal Pathogens and Disease and Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (USA) and is also affiliated with the Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova (Italy).

Statement made 3 February 2020