Off Topic SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19

Coronavirus: Exploiting nature 'drives outbreaks of new diseases'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52204724

New evidence has emerged of a link between human exploitation of nature and pandemics.

Close contact with wild animals through hunting, trade or habitat loss puts the world at increased risk of outbreaks of new diseases, say scientists.

Coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats, with other wild animals, possibly pangolins, playing a role in transmission to humans.

There are strong indications of a wildlife source and a link to trade.

In the latest study, researchers trawled scientific papers for reports of diseases that have crossed from animals to humans, then combined this data with information on extinction risk compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Wild animals at risk of extinction due to human exploitation were found to carry over twice as many viruses that can cause human disease as threatened species listed for other reasons. The same was true for threatened species at risk due to loss of habitat.

"As natural habitat is diminished, wildlife come into closer contact with people," Dr Christine Johnson of the University of California, Davis, US, told BBC News,

"Wildlife also shift their distributions to accommodate anthropogenic activities and modification of the natural landscape. This has hastened disease emergence from wildlife, which put us at risk of pandemics because we are all globally connected through travel and trade."

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Image captionRoad built through the rainforest
Wild animals on the edge of extinction are few in number and generally pose a low risk of passing on infectious diseases, said Dr Johnson, except where human exploitation and habitat loss puts them in close contact with humans.

"Exploitation of wildlife, which has caused once abundant wildlife to decline in numbers, through hunting and trading in wildlife, have endangered species survival and also put humans at risk of emerging infectious disease," she said.

Scientists have long drawn attention to human diseases that have originated in animals, including Sars, Mers and Ebola. In the wake of coronavirus, there is growing awareness that human health is linked both with animal health and the health of the planet as a whole.

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Image captionProtest against deforestation in Jakarta
A wide range of organisations are calling for curbs on wild animal trade to reduce risks to human health. Dr Johnson said wild animals sold in busy markets where animals and people mix present an opportunity for diseases to jump between species that would normally never come together in the natural world.

"Disease emergence that occurs anywhere can affect us all and we need to all understand the impact we are having when we interact with wildlife, realise that disease emergence is an environmental issue, and find more sustainable ways to co-exist."

The research is published in the journal Royal Society Proceedings B.

 

Other than the most powerful country in the world, you mean? One that's supposed to be the leading light of the Western World? As opposed to say, Mozambique or Tajikistan?

If I sit and watch press conferences from every other world leader, will I see them self promoting, lying and trying to make themselves look like they're doing a good job?

 

Watching The Americas with Simon Reeve shows that it is far from the leading light !

 

This is my concern. There are so many good people in that country, but so many are going to die because of their leadership and lack of action. At least our leaders abandoned their plan when the science blew it wide open, America just seem to swing and hope for the best these days. They don't seem to have a long term strategy regarding anything, everything is in the here and now.

Which is a very bold move, because everything he tweets, everything he says and does is recorded and seen by everybody else. Which makes it all the more baffling as to why nobody of note ever points out that he's talking absolute ****.

 

He is completely bulletproof and will get back in .
The deflection propaganda will soon swing into full force and enough will buy it.
Was there any reason why his former press secretary gave up her job ?

 

I thought the US federal system means that the US Government only had Authority to limit the International borders, with the states having sovereign rights., and even then, they have to balance personal freedom? But I guess that's not really any use to anyone wanting to bang their chest and shout 'orange man bad'.

It's becoming way too political for here anyway, SO ENOUGH.

 

Funny how often that pops up when somebody criticises Trump. It's almost like it's a predetermined response.

The states have sovereign rights, but this isn't a statewide crisis, it's an international one. That being said, Governor DeWine of Ohio took steps to cancel events and start locking down while Trump was still saying "it will all go away." That's an example of good leadership.

Also, if he's going to just go ahead and blame China and demand they take responsibility while simultaneously not taking responsibility for the deaths of citizens in his own country, that would make him a hypocrite, wouldn't it?

 

Well you certainly got this one right.

 

It's more just a simple fact, as you yourself have just confirmed. But as I said, this is getting too political for here.

 

Fair enough, even if it is a rather lazy, shallow response. Though I do think it's worth keeping an eye on leaders throughout the crisis, these things define how good a leader somebody can be.

 

Facts are rarely shallow, especially when they are in response to a soap box rant, and it's only really lazy in that it's such an obvious fact it needed no searching for, and it's surprising it needed making.

But fair play for ending the political contributions.

 

You're only quoting leaders response to it and that s a large percentage of whats in the news .

 

Erm, politics...

 

Fair enough, so no mention of Johnson either then.

 

They don’t make sense. ONS is apparently the definitive but they have two figures for deaths in the same week and NHS England has somehow managed to report more deaths than the ONS

 

Head of EU's top science body quits amid coronavirus controversy,

Mauro Ferrari, who became head of the European Research Council for a four-year mandate on Jan. 1, submitted his resignation on Tuesday, which the Commission said was effective immediately.

He cited institutional resistance and bureaucratic infighting in the EU’s complex structures to his proposal for a big scientific programme to fight the coronavirus.

“I arrived at the ERC a fervent supporter of the EU... The COVID-19 crisis completely changed my views,” the statement said, referring to the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

 

What, like travelling from Rome to Lombardy for an ‘aperitif’ with a group of students declaring “we must not change our ways” in a direct attempt to play down the seriousness of the threat?

 

As a result of India’s lockdown, pollution levels have dropped so dramatically the Himalaya’s can be seen from towns and villages 200km away for the first time in 30 years.

 

That wasn't the PM of Italy, it was Nicola Zingaretti. Conte never made any such remarks.

 

Are Nottingham Forest in danger of bankruptcy?