"She says the paradigm of invasion — or “microbial xenophobia,” as she calls it — often fails to explain why a microbe that’s existed for ages suddenly turns into a pandemic-causing pathogen. After studying outbreaks ranging from cholera to West Nile virus to Ebola, she’s found that human activities play a huge, and hugely underrecognized, role."
"Our environmental and social policies — like cutting down forests or failing to address a housing crisis — make it much likelier that a previously harmless microbe will cause a devastating outbreak."
"...Species everywhere are full of microbes, but if they stay in the bodies in which they’ve evolved, they don’t cause disease. Ebola doesn’t cause disease in bats. Neither does coronavirus. They cause disease in our bodies because they’re new to us — they’re exploiting a new habitat."
"...So why are they exploiting that new habitat, namely us humans?"
"It’s because we are building roads between wild animals and human bodies. We’re using up a lot of land — for our cities, our mines, our farms — and while doing that, we’re destroying wildlife habitat."
"When you cut down the forest where bats live, they don’t just go away; they come roost in the trees in your backyard or farm. That means it’s easier to have casual contact with their excretions."
The article doesn't discuss the notorious, and now closed "wet market" in which the contact with animals such as bats wasn't a bug, it was a feature.
Pope Francis touched on environmental degradation in his Urbi et Orbi homily last Friday. The transcript I found read as follows:
"We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick."
Kaltherine, that last was exactly the quote I was thinking aobut when I read this. I think I heard Dr. Shah interviewed on the radio somewhere. At least it was a woman doctor making some of he same points. Some small tribes had dietary habits that built up their immunity to pathogens we get hit with all at once as we find kicky new things to eat.
ReplyDeleteIn response, The Don had his people scrap Obama auto pollution rules yesterday in order to make cars cheaper, supposedly,
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
Thanks for posting this. I would like to read the article, but honestly there's only so much I can take right now. And there's not a damn thing I can do about it except complain about "what's the world coming to?" like a querulous old biddy.
ReplyDeleteI fear I had gotten to the "I, Claudius" phase of.life, which is let people reap what they have sown, learn if they can, and let me die quick and soon.