Covid-19: Origins of an outbreak

Pathogens that cause disease in people and other animals — called zoonotic diseases — aren’t uncommon: Rabies, flu viruses and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are all familiar examples. But the threat of such pathogens is growing. Researchers who monitor for emerging infectious diseases typically recognized about three per year, says epidemiologist and disease ecologist Jonna Mazet. In the last decade that’s increased to about five per year.

That uptick is not the fault of the animals that carry these pathogens, says Mazet, of the University of California, Davis. “It’s our human behavior and the risky things that we do that put ourselves at risk for exposure to these viruses.”

Mazet details some of the factors that increase that risk, which include changes in how and where people interact with wildlife. As people push further and further into places that were previously uninhabited — such as mining for materials that make our cell phones lighter — the probability of encountering unfamiliar viruses increases. “We are exposing ourselves to things that just aren’t in our evolutionary history and we’re really at risk,” Mazet says.

The virus behind the pandemic, SARS CoV-2, was one such “jumper.” Evidence suggests that its original evolutionary host was a horseshoe bat, one of many viruses that bats appear to tolerate with little to no ill effects. And there will likely be more such “spillover” events to come.

“We know that in the viral families that are known to cause human disease and be shared with other animals, that there are at least 500,000 viruses still to discover that can infect us and could make us sick,” Mazet says. “We've only scratched the surface.”

Ultimately, we have to rethink how we interact with the environment, Mazet says. “We’re talking about the interconnected health of the whole planet — the people, the animals, the environment — and when we do protect that we protect ourselves for the longer term.”

[adamwalker]

We didn't have to go to far away places to start this pandemic. Unless you consider the lab in Wuhan, China a "far away place".

[traianliviudanciu]

Did we know at what tissue temperature did SARS COV2 better replicate ?
Why ?
Because at TWiV 659 at min29 virologist Christian Drosten suggest that SARS COV2 better replicate at very low tissue temperature.
Theoretically, high body temperature can protect against SARS COV2 infection.

[Intimatycal]

oh wow !! so you are planning to make a lot of new viruses outbreaks, right? Good job geniuses

[ktex]

There's supposed to be 15 comments. Only 2 show up. Watch out for the thought police!

[opinion]

Nice to see that only the conspiracy theorists turned up to watch this one.

[hyp-o-crite-]

stop interaction with bats just leave them alone and no more wild animals trade

[oopalonga]

Why does this vid have such few views?

[openmind]

This is Bad...Misinformation, so much for CREDIBILITY

[deysharnghe]

Its actually venom guyys it was manmade wakeup

[GNumber]

Bats weren't born 2019 neither was that market, so all those theories sound very weak, it's must be something else