4 ms·

The sars outbreak of 2002 is also linked to bats. I wonder if when this outbreak is over if they go back to eating bats because "our traditions and culture". It

by dvh 7y ago

The sars outbreak of 2002 is also linked to bats. I wonder if when this outbreak is over if they go back to eating bats because "our traditions and culture". It's not a staple food like chicken or pigs.

n0rbwah 7y ago
As was the case with SARS, it's believed that the virus made the jump from bats to humans through another animal intermediary. It was determined to be civets for SARS and I heard it was believed it might be pangolins for the new virus (but don't quote me on this). AFAIK, it shouldn't be possible for the bats viruses we know to make the jump directly to humans. So eating bats wasn't the cause of the outbreak in SARS and isn't the cause either for the new virus.
- bori5 7y ago
  Pretty sure there was a story from a few years ago of a person dying from a then unknown virus after contact with a fruit bat in Queensland. Edit. Here’s a link but not sure if this was the one https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-22/queensland-boy-dies-of-lyssavirus/4535496 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-22/queensland-boy-dies-o...
  - n0rbwah 7y ago
    Oh, that's entirely possible. I just heard that for this particular virus (the bat virus believed to be the ancestor of 2019-nCov), transmission to human without an intermediary was very unlikely since the bat version used a receptor that doesn't have an equivalent in human to infect cells. Any animal, wild or domestic, can theoretically transmit diseases to humans if the conditions are right.
    - 1_over_n 7y ago
      Ironically researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology demonstrated in 2013 "intermediate hosts may not be necessary for direct human infection by some bat like corona viruses" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5389864/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5389864/ Also, the lancet publication found that the first diagnoses on December 1st had no link to the seafood market https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... Furthermore, university of Toronto just published a model showing likely start of the outbreak was November, which aligns with first reported diagnoses in December. https://www.utoronto.ca/news/model-built-u-t-researchers-suggests-coronavirus-outbreak-began-november-has-yet-be-controlled https://www.utoronto.ca/news/model-built-u-t-researchers-sug... On that basis we should at the very least be cautious of the bat soup intermediary theory, and the media should stop reporting it as a fact that it was the source of the outbreak.
      - hef19898 7y ago
        There are more than one Corona virus in the wild already. Usually they cause a simple cold. Also, did you know there are recurring outbreaks, albeit very limited ones, of Hanta in the western world? And the plague in India? And Ebola in Africa, right now? Seriously, the press is notoriously bad at reporting stuff like that, like all complex potetialy scary things. I just thought that a community like HN would be wiser than falling for Dunning-Kruger about the own competency when it comes to diseases, and to go down the twitter / Youtube / "dark corners of the internet" hole.
        1_over_n 7y ago
        The current claim in the media is that intermediate hosts are the vector for the virus. It is clear from published research an intermediate vector is not required. These are all peer reviewed journals. There are no links to twitter / youtube / dark corners of the internet here. You assume that commenters on HN don't have experience working in this field. I feel like this comment has been made without an insight into a biosafety lab's day to day workings or reading those papers from an informed perspective - so assuming a Dunning-Kruger effect through a lack of understanding of the person submitting the comments on HN. I believe this would be classed as a relativist-fallacy.
blackrock 7y ago
Then please explain this. https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/08/07/158221181/on-the-road-in-florida-hard-times-politics-and-smoked-bat https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/08/07/15822... This is a business in Florida that serves smoked fruit bats. You know.. it’s the exact same type of bat that’s being linked to the coronavirus in China.
- adventured 7y ago
  Explain it? It's a silly comparison. That's a singular business (in an article from 2012), not hundreds of dangerous, wet markets that presently exist all across China serving tens of millions of people. Show me the figures on the number of people in the US eating bats, versus China. Bat is not considered a common delicacy in the US. It's considered an extremely bizarre thing to eat bat in the US. In fact bats are so rarely consumed in the US, it's difficult to find information on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food
- Brave-Steak 7y ago
  https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34407-d388919-Reviews-Hot_Rods_Country_BBQ-Lutz_Florida.html https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34407-d388919... Seems to have gone out of business. Doesn't exactly seem like serving bats was popular enough for them to stay afloat.
netsharc 7y ago
The bat video you've seen is a Chinese tourism TV show eating it in the Pacific.. It's equivalent to an American TV person eating fried cricket on a stick in Thailand, or fermented fish in Iceland..
mapcars 7y ago
>It's not a staple food like chicken or pigs You forgot to add "in western culture"
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  It's not a staple in China either. Chicken and pigs are.
  - rzmnzm 7y ago
    Are dogs a staple food in China or is that a stereotype?
    - viraptor 7y ago
      The answer is a simple web search away. Are you just trolling?

by dvh 7y ago

n0rbwah 7y ago

As was the case with SARS, it's believed that the virus made the jump from bats to humans through another animal intermediary. It was determined to be civets for SARS and I heard it was believed it might be pangolins for the new virus (but don't quote me on this). AFAIK, it shouldn't be possible for the bats viruses we know to make the jump directly to humans. So eating bats wasn't the cause of the outbreak in SARS and isn't the cause either for the new virus.

bori5 7y ago
Pretty sure there was a story from a few years ago of a person dying from a then unknown virus after contact with a fruit bat in Queensland. Edit. Here’s a link but not sure if this was the one https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-22/queensland-boy-dies-of-lyssavirus/4535496 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-22/queensland-boy-dies-o...
- n0rbwah 7y ago
  Oh, that's entirely possible. I just heard that for this particular virus (the bat virus believed to be the ancestor of 2019-nCov), transmission to human without an intermediary was very unlikely since the bat version used a receptor that doesn't have an equivalent in human to infect cells. Any animal, wild or domestic, can theoretically transmit diseases to humans if the conditions are right.
  - 1_over_n 7y ago
    Ironically researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology demonstrated in 2013 "intermediate hosts may not be necessary for direct human infection by some bat like corona viruses" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5389864/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5389864/ Also, the lancet publication found that the first diagnoses on December 1st had no link to the seafood market https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... Furthermore, university of Toronto just published a model showing likely start of the outbreak was November, which aligns with first reported diagnoses in December. https://www.utoronto.ca/news/model-built-u-t-researchers-suggests-coronavirus-outbreak-began-november-has-yet-be-controlled https://www.utoronto.ca/news/model-built-u-t-researchers-sug... On that basis we should at the very least be cautious of the bat soup intermediary theory, and the media should stop reporting it as a fact that it was the source of the outbreak.
    - hef19898 7y ago
      There are more than one Corona virus in the wild already. Usually they cause a simple cold. Also, did you know there are recurring outbreaks, albeit very limited ones, of Hanta in the western world? And the plague in India? And Ebola in Africa, right now? Seriously, the press is notoriously bad at reporting stuff like that, like all complex potetialy scary things. I just thought that a community like HN would be wiser than falling for Dunning-Kruger about the own competency when it comes to diseases, and to go down the twitter / Youtube / "dark corners of the internet" hole.
      - 1_over_n 7y ago
        The current claim in the media is that intermediate hosts are the vector for the virus. It is clear from published research an intermediate vector is not required. These are all peer reviewed journals. There are no links to twitter / youtube / dark corners of the internet here. You assume that commenters on HN don't have experience working in this field. I feel like this comment has been made without an insight into a biosafety lab's day to day workings or reading those papers from an informed perspective - so assuming a Dunning-Kruger effect through a lack of understanding of the person submitting the comments on HN. I believe this would be classed as a relativist-fallacy.

blackrock 7y ago

Then please explain this. https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/08/07/158221181/on-the-road-in-florida-hard-times-politics-and-smoked-bat https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/08/07/15822... This is a business in Florida that serves smoked fruit bats. You know.. it’s the exact same type of bat that’s being linked to the coronavirus in China.

adventured 7y ago
Explain it? It's a silly comparison. That's a singular business (in an article from 2012), not hundreds of dangerous, wet markets that presently exist all across China serving tens of millions of people. Show me the figures on the number of people in the US eating bats, versus China. Bat is not considered a common delicacy in the US. It's considered an extremely bizarre thing to eat bat in the US. In fact bats are so rarely consumed in the US, it's difficult to find information on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food
Brave-Steak 7y ago
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34407-d388919-Reviews-Hot_Rods_Country_BBQ-Lutz_Florida.html https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34407-d388919... Seems to have gone out of business. Doesn't exactly seem like serving bats was popular enough for them to stay afloat.

netsharc 7y ago

The bat video you've seen is a Chinese tourism TV show eating it in the Pacific.. It's equivalent to an American TV person eating fried cricket on a stick in Thailand, or fermented fish in Iceland..

mapcars 7y ago

>It's not a staple food like chicken or pigs You forgot to add "in western culture"

kwhitefoot 7y ago
It's not a staple in China either. Chicken and pigs are.
- rzmnzm 7y ago
  Are dogs a staple food in China or is that a stereotype?
  - viraptor 7y ago
    The answer is a simple web search away. Are you just trolling?