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On your point about modernity. I think the main risk factor is actually close proximity to animals and poor hygiene around them. That is what allows the rare
by 7952 4y ago
On your point about modernity. I think the main risk factor is actually close proximity to animals and poor hygiene around them. That is what allows the rare event of a jump between species to happen. A modern society could reduce this risk a lot.
- salawat 4y ago...That and not doing Gain of Function research where we deliberately go out of the way to serial passage/DNA clone/chimera viruses to make them more infectious. Lets be real here. No one hangs out in bat caves for the lulz.
- 7952 4y agoYou are right, transmission from animals is really difficult. But that also explains why those transferred diseases can be so dangerous. We don't have existing immunity because humans don't hang out in bat caves. And the threat is very real when we live in close proximity to domesticated animals or eat bush meat. And people do both of those things. There is a very long list of infectious diseases that started in animals. We need to be careful. And even in richer countries the threat still exists. People keep chickens in the garden. Environmental surveys look for bats. We have factory farms and abbatoirs.