Curious how this happened and why it has spread from Wuhan, China to my town (and across the globe) in less than two months, I Googled "where did covid come from?" I waded through some scholarly papers that were above my Liberal Arts degree level of understanding until I found a couple of resources that were accessible to me.
So, where did this Covid virus come from? Probably bats. Bats are carriers of many different types of corona viruses (so named because of their uniquely shaped "crown") and this covid-19 is presumed to be one of them. Bats are not really to blame; they are not malevolent. Bats just do what they do, live where they live, poop where they poop. Other animals live alongside them and also do what they do, which sometimes includes eating bat poop (no accounting for taste; I can't abide bleu cheese, so there ya go.)
One of these animals is the pangolin (sort of an armadillo looking creature) whose scales are prized in Chinese medicine and sometimes for its meat. This animal may well have ended up in a Chinese "wet market" where live animals are kept for sale. They are stacked in cages; it's a super crowded area with people milling about. Droplets of pangolin sputum or feces could easily transfer to hands and then nose, mouth, or eyes of those human unwashed hands, infecting that person and on and on and there you have it.
Covid 19 is new (that's why its called "novel") and humans know almost nothing about how it behaves. There is no treatment, no cure, and it's more deadly than any known flu at this point, especially for those who are older or with underlying health issues. Health care facilities in many areas are unable to handle the demand for treatment. It's scary!
But back to how climate change contributes to pandemics...
Get ready. This won't be the only challenge we will face as the planet warms up. Humans and animals have always lived together. But conditions change due to climate change, we come into closer proximity, even competing for habitats. Bats and human interactions led to the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa and this could be a harbinger of things to come as bats are forced to hunt and feed closer to human settlements as climate changes. Think also about the Zika virus outbreak -- as the earth warms, mosquitoes will expand their habit into areas not normally warm enough for them to live -- they will move farther north to right here in the U.S of A.
Climate stress also causes humans to move around. We already see large migrations of people due to drought, poverty, and violence moving from rural to urban centers, bringing whatever illness they may have with them. These illnesses spread like wildfire, through no fault of the folks who contracted these diseases. It is tragic all the way around.
We live in a changing world, on a changing planet, with changing challenges. This is no time to throw our hands in the air, hoarding toilet paper and N-95 masks as if we can protect ourselves from every bad thing. It IS time to be aware, be educated, be cautious, and to be involved. The personal is political -- vote for people who are well-equipped to lead, who believe in science, who can manage crises, who surround themselves with experts.
And hey, let's lean into kindness. We are one human community. We are in this together. 🙏🏽
Here's to health, for ourselves and our planet...©
Photo Credit: www.pixabay.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/another-deadly-consequence-of-climate-change-the-spread-of-dangerous-diseases/2017/05/30/fd3b8504-34b1-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/did-covid-19-start-in-bats-how-did-it-transfer-to-humans-answering-your-coronavirus-questions/283-a9b29735-c25e-402d-98c2-be2171dc3f3a
