• Question: Do you think covid-19 comes from animals or eating animlas?

    Asked by anon-256924 on 12 Jun 2020. This question was also asked by anon-257253.
    • Photo: Ellie Dunstone

      Ellie Dunstone answered on 12 Jun 2020:

      Hi Lorenzo,

      There’s an increasing amount of evidence that covid-19 did come from animals, probably from bats. This is called a zoonotic disease, where a disease found in animals gains the ability to infect people too. Many other well-known diseases (HIV, ebola) also originated this way.

      It’s important to remember not to blame the people that had contact with the animals for introducing the diseases though. Most of us eat animals, and some people don’t have much control over being in contact with them/where their food comes from. We don’t actually know yet whether COVID-19 even came from eating bats, it may have been a more indirect form of contact.

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