Pandemics caused by animal abuses.
VEGANISM is the only way to prevent.
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2019: COVID-19
This novel coronavirus pandemic is strongly believed to have come from a “wet market” in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Officially the first case of Covid-19 came on 8th December 2019. The city was put into lockdown on 23rd January 2020. Like other types of coronavirus, it began in animals and was transmitted to humans. Later research suggested links to bats and pangolins.
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2014: Ebola Virus Disease
The Ebola virus disease is a virus transmitted to humans from animals such as bats, primates and porcupines.
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2012: MERS
Middle East respiratory syndrome or 'MERS' is another disease caused by a coronavirus. First seen in Saudi Arabia this respiratory disease has now spread around the world. The World Health Organization advises that camels transferred the virus to humans and their guidance is to avoid the consumption of camel meat and milk.
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2009: Swine Flu
Killing 575,000+ people around the world, the H1N1 virus pandemic started when the virus was transmitted from pigs to humans.
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2002: SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome or 'SARS' is yet another disease caused by a coronavirus that originated in wild animals. This time it was bats and civet cats that passed it to humans. The pandemic originated in China and caused an outbreak of deadly pneumonia, killing more than 770 people. It’s again thought that the virus might have started in a wet market.
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1997: Bird Flu
First appearing in farmed geese H5N1 bird or 'avian' flu moved to infecting chickens raised for meat and eggs. Particular strains of avian flu can be transmitted from birds to humans. The deadliest strains are H5N1 and H7N9. Many hundreds of people in China and around the globe have been killed by these avian flu viruses. The virus is transmitted to humans through the touching of feathers, flesh, or the bird's faeces.
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1995: vCJD
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) (or 'Mad Cow Disease') is a thankfully rare condition causing brain damage in humans. Humans contracted the disease from eating the flesh of cows who have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Cows, who are herbivores, developed BSE after being fed the ground-up flesh and bones of animals, including sheep and other cows. In other words man caused the enforced atrocity of making cows become cannibals. 226 people have died of vCJD around the world.
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1980s onwards: HIV
HIV or 'Human Immunodeficiency Virus' is believed to most likely have originated from SIV or 'Simian Immunodeficiency Virus' and crossed over to humans through blood contamination whilst butchering non-human primates for human consumption.
NOT JUST WET MARKETS IN ASIA!
As the coronavirus outbreak took hold in Europe and North America, if you were following the pandemic news stories, or veganism issues, you would have witnessed opinions expressed that the problem was or is the way animals are exploited in some areas of Asia. Undoubtedly this is apparent. China have themselves created new laws stopping elements of trade of wildlife meats. As Vegans we can only be glad about this. It's what happens next though that we also want to create increased awareness of.
Viral pandemics won't just originate from wet markets in the future. MANKIND NEEDS TO LEARN, AND LEARN NOW. Don't be naive, Animal Agriculture and the Dairy Industries are not sanitary. The animals frequently live in squalor, they are most often kept in overcrowded facilities, standing in their own waste, causing diseases and ailments to run through livestocks. Look again at the diseases above: Swine flu, bird flu and vCJD didn't originate from Asian wet markets. In western culture we MUST understand that practices like feeding cows to cows is just so wrong, and that nature has a way of paying us back.
"All human viral infections were initially zoonotic in origin. Animals will always provide a reservoir for viruses that could threaten human populations in the future". Jonathan Weber, FRCP, FRCPath, FmedSci, Keith Alcorn, Medical Writer. Origins of HIV and the AIDS Epidemic - September 11-12, 2000, The Royal Society, London, United Kingdom
