COVID-19, the newest strain of coronavirus, is currently sweeping the world. News headlines are constantly filled with horror stories of this new virus. It is fast spreading and sadly lethal in certain groups of people. The fear and panic in people’s minds seem to be spreading faster than the virus itself.
Find your way around:
History Lesson Time:
Covid-19 is the newest virus in many emerging diseases being seen over the last 2 decades. However, the real question we should be asking is where have many of these diseases originated from?
The domestication of animals from approximately 10,000 years ago appears to be the culprit and is known as the “domestic-origin” hypothesis (NIH). Domesticating and eating wild animals for food has brought us into direct contact with many potentially zoonotic diseases. Agricultural development, and subsequent alteration of the natural environment, created a pathway for humans to come into contact with these diseases. Humans received the cold virus from horses and smallpox from camels. Measles came from cows, whopping cough from pigs, typhoid fever from chickens, and influenza from ducks. Other examples include HIV from eating wild apes as bush-meat, and H5N1 influenza from infected chickens in east Asian countries.
Later on we learned how to industrialize our agriculture systems. This industrialized system is the reason why when a virus makes the leap from wild to domestic animal, it can take out thousands of animals, and potentially spread to humans. The large numbers of domestic animals also allows the virus to mutate many thousands of times more than it would in its wild host, increasing it’s virulence.
Does this mean that agriculture is bad?
Absolutely not. Agriculture allowed us to flourish as a species. It allowed our civilizations to expand and prosper. This history lesson shows that though there was no ill intent, although this action did have unintended consequences which cost many lives over the last 10,000 years.
So back to this novel virus, known as SARS-COV-2, which causes COVID-19 disease, commonly referred to as the coronavirus. At the time of this writing there are 1,134,418 confirmed cases, with 60,115 deaths. While this disease causes acute respiratory symptoms, and sometimes severely so, the vast majority of people survive and recover. The groups of people that are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms are the elderly as well as those individuals with co-morbidities, such as Coronary Vascular Disease, Type II Diabetes, and Asthma to name a few.
These numbers can seem scary, however let us put some context for the numbers. The undocumented transmission rate was calculated at 55%, which means that for every 1 confirmed case in the world, there are likely 5 more undocumented cases (Cases). Using this information, our 1,134,418 cases becomes 5,672,090 cases (confirmed + unconfirmed). This dramatically reduces the mortality rate from 5% to 1% (60,115/5,672,090). This should fill us with optimism. For more encouraging news, check out William Lapschies, a 104 year old WWII Vet who beat this virus (Vet Survived Coronavirus)!
What lessons can we draw?
This new disease has spread rapidly around the globe, however this will likely not be the last pandemic if we do not take a serious look at our food production system, and make some large scale changes. First, we must de-industrialize our farms in the US, and make poultry flocks, pig farms, and cow farms much less dense. This will lessen the ability of a virus to take out large numbers of animals once it jumps from the wild host into the domestic group. Second and most importantly, we must drastically reduce the amount of meat we consume. This will have a multi-fold effect. It will reduce the destruction of the natural environment which we rely on for our food production, reduce the healthcare costs of late life chronic disease management, and it will return us to a more natural relationship with animals.
What about the coronavirus?
While coronavirus is the latest threat to us, we are, if nothing else, resilient. Our species has survived countless diseases since time immemorial, and we will weather this storm as well. Of course, please follow social distancing of 6 feet between yourself and others, wash your hands frequently for a minimum of 20 seconds, and avoid touching your face. We can, and should, make a shift in our eating habits in the aftermath of this new Coronavirus pandemic. For ourselves, and for future generations yet to come.
Let us know that you liked our content by
New to the blog? Check out our latest content:
Resources:
- Nature
- Infectious Diseases
- Disease Evolution
- Cases
- Domestication & Disease
New to the blog? Check out our latest content:
Connect with us today!
