Your thoughts on the cause of Covid-19?

cormie

Poll Time! I'm really curious to see the ratios of what people believe is the cause of Covid-19 and how many people think it's an isolated case in its creation and what area should be given attention to prevent similar or worse happening again.

Most media is focusing on where the disease is believed to have spurred from, the wet markets selling wild animals. Although this is backed by strong evidence and science, it seems to put the onus of blame on a tiny niche of animal agriculture, absolving other more commercialised and popular forms and those who demand from them, of shared responsibility.

There has been far less focus on it being the inevitable outcome of a far wider spread issue with the general confinement of any animals being breeding grounds for disease. Presentations like this: https://youtu.be/G20cooZOiYE (recorded over 10 years ago) go into the science behind it. This doesn't dispel the root of Covid-19 being from the wet markets, but rather reinforces that similar diseases and worse can and have emerged from any practice of animal husbandry. This of course is going to be far more difficult for people to accept a shared responsibility for, as the demand of most cultures, beliefs, habits and people, all contribute to these industries existing.

Then there are the theories that it's related to 5G or that it has been purposely created for more sinister purposes and a few other theories floating about too.

Let's see how it goes

Wibbs

You're not gonna make the world vegan any time soon. That's right off the bat. Yes other animal farming practices can lead to zoonotic viruses jumping ship. The 1918 pandemic one example. However, these are far more easily regulated than involving wild animals in the mix. EG keeping pigs and fowl wide apart. Actually I would try to phase out pork as an animal source of protein as they're too often the catalyst for such jumps. Regulated animal farming is like having a dog that might bite someone once every ten years, wet markets and bush meat are like having a dog with rabies.

cormie

Is an attack every 10 years acceptable? These more sporadic instances of disease are largely due to the use of antibiotics in farming, which will eventually lead to antibiotic resistance which is going to have a drastic impact too.

Harry Palmr

Vast urban population, intensive food production, mass International travel. You only need to drop the ball once. Throw in ecological degradation and the wild card of climate change and you might get worried.

circadian

cormie wrote: »

Is an attack every 10 years acceptable? These more sporadic instances of disease are largely due to the use of antibiotics in farming, which will eventually lead to antibiotic resistance which is going to have a drastic impact too.

It's a virus.

dakar

Wibbs wrote: »

That's right off the bat.

Apt

Wibbs

Well spotted D. That's right off the pangolin didn't quite work, but I considered it.

cormie

circadian wrote: »

It's a virus.

I'm not sure what you mean here?

Slim Charles

cormie wrote: »

I'm not sure what you mean here?

You're in the wrong forum then.

Pa ElGrande

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Vast urban population, intensive food production, mass International travel. You only need to drop the ball once. Throw in ecological degradation and the wild card of climate change and you might get worried.

Previous pandemics crossed borders long before the era of mass international travel to social gatherings like skiing and long before vast urban populations and intensive food production gained a foothold circa 12,000 years ago in the aftermath of the ice age.

Viruses are always mutating that's why we have "flu season" every year since we can't vaccinate for all the viruses that cause these symptoms, and even then a vaccine is no good on someone with a compromised immune system or underlying condition that make them susceptible such as deterioration caused by age.

When you scan back through the headlines over the past few years the public hospital system has always been close to breaking point every 'flu season' and cannot handle a situation where the infection rate deviates from the normal curve. Germany seems to be the country with slack in their system. The other risk factor for Europe and many other countries is the increasing age of the population, the median age in Italy is estimated at 45.8 years, in Germany it is estimated at 47.4 years and Ireland is 37.1 (about the same as China) while most of Africa median age is in the 20s. The living arrangements of Italian families may account for the mortality rate among elderly population compared with Germany where the offspring tend to move out of the house.


An ageing population in Europe has consequences, it needs migrant workers need to keep production going and to care for the elderly. In this case the migrant workers returned to Italy after the Chinese new year and bought the virus with them, at the same time skiing season was underway in Europe which is popular with younger people and they transmitted the virus to their home countries without necessarily manifesting any symptoms beyond what they regard as a normal cold and people.


One other factor to consider in this. China on its own accounted for more than half of the world’s pig population back in 2018. African swine fever spread throughout China which had no cure and a near zero survival rate for infected pigs, one quarter of the worlds pigs died last year, and by August 2019 virtually wiped out 40% of China’s entire pig population, including those in Wuhan. How many dead animals, including those in Wuhan were buried and how many incinerated are open questions and it will take time to figure out if the conditions of the disposal of the bodies in any way contributed to the incubation of the disease in that region.

Beasty

It's in the OP - we have a Conspiracy Theories Forum for this sort of stuff