June Almeida was an electron microscope specialist and holds several patents on viral imaging techniques, although she left school at 16 and did not study. Their work has not lost in importance to date: Almeida’s technology has been used in China, for example, to identify Covid-19.
How June Almeida discovered the corona virus
The corona virus was discovered by June Almeida in 1964. The virologist was sent a nasal irrigation exam containing a virus that she described as similar to the flu virus, but not exactly the same. Because of its characteristic shape, a crown, June Almeida and her colleagues David Tyrrell and Professor Tony Waterson christened the corona virus. ‘Corona’ means crown in Latin. When Almeida wanted to publish her discovery in a peer-reviewed journal, she was rejected. The reason: Your pictures are bad photos of flu virus particles. It was only two years later that the photos were published in the “Journal of General Virology”.
Images of rubella and HI virus
Almeida not only discovered the corona virus, but also made the first picture of a rubella virus. The pathogen had been known for 25 years but had not yet been visualized. In addition, she was able to prove that the hepatitis B virus has two components, an external and an internal one. The shape of a virus is important for the choice of countermeasures. At the end of the 1980s, June Almeida was brought out of retirement and used as a consultant to visualize the HI virus.
June Almeida – bus driver daughter, virologist, yoga teacher
June Almeidas was the daughter of a Glasgow bus driver and left school at 16. Her professional career began as a laboratory technician for tissue pathology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. This was followed by the stations in London, Canada – with her newly married husband, an artist from Venezuela – and again London. There Almeida worked at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was treated in the associated hospital in spring 2020 for his Covid 19 disease. June Almeida received her doctorate from the Postgraduate Medical School in London, and the virologist acquired patents in virus visualization at the Wellcome Research Laboratory.
Almeida retired as a yoga teacher and gave lessons. She also learned how to restore porcelain and ran an antique shop with her second husband. In the late 1980s she was a consultant at St Thomas’ Hospital for the visualization of the HI virus.
#Corona expert
Just as June Almeida was forgotten in spite of her significant discoveries, it seems to have been forgotten that there are significant female virologists today who can provide information on the pandemic. In order to draw attention to the female experts, “ProQuote Medien” has launched the hashtag #Coronaexpertin and created a list of female virologists, infectiologists, epidemiologists and intensive care physicians. A data analysis by Spiegel showed that among the most mentioned virologists in press articles (print and online) since January 1st, 2020 only two virologists can be found in the top ten.
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