FINALLY.. SOME GOOD NEWS FOR BATS!
WHO demands end of cruel wet markets
IT’S not been a great year for bats… after being blamed for the whole Covid pandemic. But things might just be looking up for them.
THE sale of bats and live animals for human consumption must be banned, say medical experts.
Bats have been blamed for transmitting coronavirus to humans at China’s infamous wet markets.
A team led by the World Health Organisation tracked the first human infections to such a market in Wuhan. Now the organisation wants the sick sale of live bats and other animals to end.
It said: “The guidance calls on countries to suspend the sale of captured live wild mammals in food markets as an emergency measure.”
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British scientist Professor Diana Bell first warned a pandemic would be triggered by China’s wildlife trade 17 years ago after studying a SARS epidemic in the Far East.
In 2004 the expert, from the University of East Anglia’s School of Biological Sciences, called for markets to be closed.
Asked why it had taken the WHO so long to call for the suspension of live animal markets, a spokesman for the organisation last night said: “Reaching an agreement takes time.”
She added: “Most emerging infectious diseases have their origin in wild animals and suspending unsafe sale of live mammals for food will reduce the chances of a virus spillover in future.
“Most emerging infectious diseases have their origin in wild animals and suspending unsafe sale of live mammals for food will reduce the chances of a virus spillover in the future. Covid-19 has brought new attention to this threat.”
Around 2.9million have since died from Covid-19, which has infected 135m people worldwide.
ALL things considered, it’s been a bad year for bats.
The critters’ reputation hit the skids when they were first linked with coronavirus back in 2020.
The World Health Organization believes Covid was carried by them and then passed to humans through traditional Chinese wet markets.
Today – some 16 months later – we hear that WHO has now urged countries to close down the markets.
They have said wild animals “are the source of more than 70% of all emerging infectious diseases in humans”.
This isn’t a puzzle worthy of Batman’s nemesis The Riddler.
It’s obvious to us normal folk that the markets should have been closed a lot sooner.
And it’s clear that bats are best left off the plate.
Which, we reckon, probably comes as good news for bats.