3 ms·

Don’t Blame Bat Soup for the Wuhan Virus

8 points by hardmaru 7y ago

bediger4000 7y ago
Chicken of the cave!
anonsivalley652 7y ago
The mainstream media reports did come across as racist/provincial/nationalistic, I hope that wasn't the intention, perhaps they wanted to stoke outrage/clickbaiting for attention. That said, this article does miss eating the 800 lbs. gorilla in the room: that meat agriculture in the West is done on a larger, more pandemic-risky scale, although out-of-sight of Chicken McNugget- and Big Mac-eating consumers than is most bushmeat. Both have risks in different scopes and scales, but I would wager it's riskier to have zillions of animals crammed in cages plus all the unfortunate humans right in there cleaning up after all of their poop and pee. Hen farms (most hens are kept in cages stacked on each other in three-dimensions), hog farms (have you see the lakes of poop?), dairies and more are all ripe bioreactors for evolving pandemics. Domesticating animals also likely brought us our most deadly and persistent pathogens (~61% according to the WHO): measles, smallpox, influenza and the common cold are just a few. I love a sous vide filet mignon now and then, but it seems like a bad idea from self-preservation and resource allocation perspectives to do it everyday. https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/zoonoses/en/ https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/zoonoses/en/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567134814000781 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15671... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672105/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672105/
- himinlomax 7y ago
  > Both have risks in different scopes and scales, but I would wager it's riskier to have zillions of animals crammed in cages plus all the unfortunate humans right in there cleaning up after all of their poop and pee. That may make an outbreak of a new disease have more of an impact, but on the other hand it makes the appearance of a new disease nearly impossible. Bushmeat presents a recurring risk of unleashing previously unknown strains. Industrial meat also makes it much easier to detect and control diseases earlier.

8 points by hardmaru 7y ago

Chicken of the cave!

The mainstream media reports did come across as racist/provincial/nationalistic, I hope that wasn't the intention, perhaps they wanted to stoke outrage/clickbaiting for attention. That said, this article does miss eating the 800 lbs. gorilla in the room: that meat agriculture in the West is done on a larger, more pandemic-risky scale, although out-of-sight of Chicken McNugget- and Big Mac-eating consumers than is most bushmeat. Both have risks in different scopes and scales, but I would wager it's riskier to have zillions of animals crammed in cages plus all the unfortunate humans right in there cleaning up after all of their poop and pee. Hen farms (most hens are kept in cages stacked on each other in three-dimensions), hog farms (have you see the lakes of poop?), dairies and more are all ripe bioreactors for evolving pandemics. Domesticating animals also likely brought us our most deadly and persistent pathogens (~61% according to the WHO): measles, smallpox, influenza and the common cold are just a few. I love a sous vide filet mignon now and then, but it seems like a bad idea from self-preservation and resource allocation perspectives to do it everyday. https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/zoonoses/en/ https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/zoonoses/en/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567134814000781 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15671... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672105/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672105/

himinlomax 7y ago
> Both have risks in different scopes and scales, but I would wager it's riskier to have zillions of animals crammed in cages plus all the unfortunate humans right in there cleaning up after all of their poop and pee. That may make an outbreak of a new disease have more of an impact, but on the other hand it makes the appearance of a new disease nearly impossible. Bushmeat presents a recurring risk of unleashing previously unknown strains. Industrial meat also makes it much easier to detect and control diseases earlier.