[1] Baric has warned of emerging coronaviruses presenting as a significant threat to global health, due to zoonosis.
[2][3] Baric's work has drawn criticism from some scientists and members of the public related to chimeric virus experiments conducted at UNC-Chapel Hill.
[4] Baric has published multiple articles and book chapters on the epidemiology and genetics of various viruses, including norovirus,[5][6][7] and coronaviruses,[8][9] as well as potential treatments for viral diseases.
[10][11] In 2015, with Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he published an article titled "A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence," which describes their work in generating and characterizing a chimeric virus which added the spike of a bat coronavirus (SHC014) onto the backbone of a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV (rMA15).
[12] The research related to this article drew criticism from other scientists due to fears that the SHC014-rMA15 chimeric virus could have pandemic potential.