
Don’t Blame Bat Soup for the Wuhan Virus - hardmaru
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/27/dont-blame-bat-soup-for-the-wuhan-virus/
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anonsivalley652
The mainstream media reports did come across as
racist/provincial/nationalistic, I hope that wasn't the intention, perhaps
they wanted to stoke outrage/clickbaiting for attention. That said, this
article does miss eating the 800 lbs. gorilla in the room: that meat
agriculture in the West is done on a larger, more pandemic-risky scale,
although out-of-sight of Chicken McNugget- and Big Mac-eating consumers than
is most bushmeat. Both have risks in different scopes and scales, but I would
wager it's riskier to have zillions of animals crammed in cages plus all the
unfortunate humans right in there cleaning up after all of their poop and pee.
Hen farms (most hens are kept in cages stacked on each other in three-
dimensions), hog farms (have you see the lakes of poop?), dairies and more are
all ripe bioreactors for evolving pandemics. Domesticating animals also likely
brought us our most deadly and persistent pathogens (~61% according to the
WHO): measles, smallpox, influenza and the common cold are just a few. I love
a sous vide filet mignon now and then, but it seems like a bad idea from self-
preservation and resource allocation perspectives to do it everyday.

[https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/zoonoses/en/](https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/zoonoses/en/)

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15671...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567134814000781)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672105/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672105/)

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himinlomax
> Both have risks in different scopes and scales, but I would wager it's
> riskier to have zillions of animals crammed in cages plus all the
> unfortunate humans right in there cleaning up after all of their poop and
> pee.

That may make an outbreak of a new disease have more of an impact, but on the
other hand it makes the appearance of a new disease nearly impossible.
Bushmeat presents a recurring risk of unleashing previously unknown strains.

Industrial meat also makes it much easier to detect and control diseases
earlier.

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bediger4000
Chicken of the cave!

