COVID-19 is really bad. Really, really bad. It has essentially shut the world down, ground the economy down to a halt, effectively cost people a year of their lives, and worse – taken lives. But could you imagine a double whammy? Another global pandemic unfolding, more or less, at exactly the same time?!
Unbelievably, that is exactly the path we’re heading down thanks to the rise in Zoonotic diseases brought upon by Climate Change. In fact, we’ve already identified a new swine flu that has extreme pandemic potential even though it hasn’t turned up in humans yet. Yet being the operative word.
As the BBC puts it:
“A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.
It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.
The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.
While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has ‘all the hallmarks’ of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.
As it’s new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.”
And this could be just the beginning with human behavior likely driving the risk of more pandemics higher and higher.
According to Business Insider:
“From what scientists know so far, COVID-19 is likely a zoonotic disease, meaning it was probably transferred from animals to humans.
Zoonotic diseases are not uncommon. SARS, MERS, Zika, and Ebola are all zoonotic diseases — and more new ones are emerging.
[Executive Director of UNEP Inger] Andersen said that, ‘75% or so of new infectious diseases are zoonotic in nature.’
Some experts think this increase might be related to an increase in deforestation and the subsequent increase in contact between humans and animal species. One study of Ebola found that the disease was more prevalent in areas that had recently been deforested.
‘When we encroach on nature, when we destroy forest, when we degrade the environment, then we are disturbing what is supposed to be left undisturbed,’ said Andersen.”
Which means that COVID-19 may just be the beginning of what mother nature has in store for us. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse…
Is COVID-19 just the first of many global pandemics driven by Zoonotic Diseases?
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