In view of the fact that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first emerged in China, in an outbreak between November 2002 and July 2003, and that this was later traced back to transmission from cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Yunnan province .....
.... then the Chinese government have long been aware of this virus transmission route, being a serious risk to its population.
There was no vaccine created for that first SARS outbreak, and the death toll of 774 deaths was spread over 17 countries (with the majority in China and Hong Kong), and it appeared to die out by 2004. In 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS) appeared in Saudi Arabia, and again was traced back to bats, specifically to Egyptian tomb bats. The approx 720 deaths were restricted to the Saudi Arabian peninsular and South Korea, and again no vaccine was developed.
Then in 2018, we were back to China for the emergence of Swine Acute Diarrhoea Syndrome (SADS) which killed pigs, but the fear remained, that the virus or another related coronavirus could mutate and then become dangerous for humans. It too was tracked back to bat transmission .... simply eradicating bats would create another, possibly worse, ecological and human health issues e.g. Some bats eat mosquito's, and this helps control a large number of human diseases.
China was much damaged by the Four Pests Campaign run by Chairman Mao Zedong from 1958 to 1962, which had the aim of killing rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The attack on sparrows resulted in a severe ecological imbalance in China, and the campaign against the pest eating sparrows was later deemed to be one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine. In 1960, Chairman Mao ended the campaign against sparrows and redirected the fourth focus to bed bugs, but the damage had been done.
So back in March 2019, virus experts at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan China, published a warning in a report, stating that it was likely that bat-borne coronaviruses “will re-emerge to cause the next disease outbreak. In this regard, China is a likely hotspot. The challenge is to predict when and where, so that we can try our best to prevent such outbreaks.”
Of course as it turns out, it was in their very own towns 'wet market' (bush and locally produced meat markets) that the latest virus has emerged, believed (but not yet proven), to be transmitted from a single bat in the market via a pangolin. In February the Chinese authorities banned the trade and consumption of wild animals ... for the moment (reports are emerging that the markets have reopened). The city of Shenzhen has become the first Chinese city to ban eating cats and dogs .... yes, really, the only one. To be fair, the majority of the Chinese people have never knowingly eaten dog or cat meat, and say they don't want to.
However the willingness of the Chinese population to eat just about anything else that walks, crawls, flies or slithers, is the reason why pandemics like this one originate there. If the Chinese Communist government could really stop these illegal and unregulated bush meat markets in its cities, towns and villages, maybe the world could be spared these pandemics emerging from there every decade.
But corruption, incompetence and sheer official indifference (what's a few thousand deaths from a population of 1.2 billion? .... nothing more than a statistic as communist leaders have always attested), means that the markets will probably continue legally or illegally, and in any case, these markets spring up again, even if they are ever closed.
So this won't be the last such pandemic to come from this source, and the world is going to have to get used to this fact.
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| Don't Blame the Bats .... Blame Those Who Eat Them. |
.... then the Chinese government have long been aware of this virus transmission route, being a serious risk to its population.
There was no vaccine created for that first SARS outbreak, and the death toll of 774 deaths was spread over 17 countries (with the majority in China and Hong Kong), and it appeared to die out by 2004. In 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS) appeared in Saudi Arabia, and again was traced back to bats, specifically to Egyptian tomb bats. The approx 720 deaths were restricted to the Saudi Arabian peninsular and South Korea, and again no vaccine was developed.
Then in 2018, we were back to China for the emergence of Swine Acute Diarrhoea Syndrome (SADS) which killed pigs, but the fear remained, that the virus or another related coronavirus could mutate and then become dangerous for humans. It too was tracked back to bat transmission .... simply eradicating bats would create another, possibly worse, ecological and human health issues e.g. Some bats eat mosquito's, and this helps control a large number of human diseases.
China was much damaged by the Four Pests Campaign run by Chairman Mao Zedong from 1958 to 1962, which had the aim of killing rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The attack on sparrows resulted in a severe ecological imbalance in China, and the campaign against the pest eating sparrows was later deemed to be one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine. In 1960, Chairman Mao ended the campaign against sparrows and redirected the fourth focus to bed bugs, but the damage had been done.
So back in March 2019, virus experts at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan China, published a warning in a report, stating that it was likely that bat-borne coronaviruses “will re-emerge to cause the next disease outbreak. In this regard, China is a likely hotspot. The challenge is to predict when and where, so that we can try our best to prevent such outbreaks.”
Of course as it turns out, it was in their very own towns 'wet market' (bush and locally produced meat markets) that the latest virus has emerged, believed (but not yet proven), to be transmitted from a single bat in the market via a pangolin. In February the Chinese authorities banned the trade and consumption of wild animals ... for the moment (reports are emerging that the markets have reopened). The city of Shenzhen has become the first Chinese city to ban eating cats and dogs .... yes, really, the only one. To be fair, the majority of the Chinese people have never knowingly eaten dog or cat meat, and say they don't want to.
 |
| Chinese Wet Markets Are Reopening .... No Lessons Learnt. |
However the willingness of the Chinese population to eat just about anything else that walks, crawls, flies or slithers, is the reason why pandemics like this one originate there. If the Chinese Communist government could really stop these illegal and unregulated bush meat markets in its cities, towns and villages, maybe the world could be spared these pandemics emerging from there every decade.
But corruption, incompetence and sheer official indifference (what's a few thousand deaths from a population of 1.2 billion? .... nothing more than a statistic as communist leaders have always attested), means that the markets will probably continue legally or illegally, and in any case, these markets spring up again, even if they are ever closed.
So this won't be the last such pandemic to come from this source, and the world is going to have to get used to this fact.
You deleted my first comment but I have removed the sentence you might have considered contentious.
ReplyDeleteAs I said the first time your conclusion is sadly true. The Chinese claim to be a superpower but that isn't the same as 1st world. There are millions living in a third world coniton which includes low levels of food hygiene.
They aren't the only ones of course but it's relevant to the ongoing crisis.
Yes I felt obliged to remove your first comment, not because you were factually incorrect, as any internet search would confirm but in this modern age some people are professional offence takers, so I felt obliged to err on the side of caution.
DeleteBut thanks for sticking with it and reposting again so quickly. The UK pub closures mean I was actually watching the postings for a change, hence the quick response.
Thanks also for the other comments on today's posts (I assume that they are all you) ... I guess for similar reasons to me, you were watching as the posts came live. I appreciate all comments, as frankly I rarely get them anymore since a regular commenter ceased to do so last year.
Stay safe.