“the medical and scientific community need to be vigilant and on guard for developing tests to make sure that we know how extensively distributed this virus is,” he said.
the majority of emerging infectious diseases — about 70 per cent — are believed to be passed from animals to humans, in the same way as covid-19, monkeypox, ebola and hiv. that number is increasing as a growing human population continue to expand into animal habitats, according to cnn. climate change and the destruction of forests and other natural environments will continue to bring humans into contact with wild animals and the viruses they carry.
“covid-19 was a warning shot from the whole of nature to our species,” dr. aaron bernstein of harvard’s center for climate, health and the global environment and the leader of the prevent pandemics at the source taskforce, told the guardian last year. “but so far, world leaders are far from acting. you hear from [them] about the actions to supposedly prevent pandemics, but the idea of preventing their root causes is scarcely even mentioned, let alone discussed.”
maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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