Throughout 2020 it was impossible to go anywhere without hearing the word Covid. Every media outlet (including this one) was passionately covering the topic.
Arguments among friends and family broke out over whether it’s all media hype or a legitimate threat and, not surprisingly, every conspiracy theory under the sun clogged up the internet’s arteries, causing mass confusion and mistrust in our institutions.
Living on Earth in 2020 was like riding shotgun in a speeding vehicle where the driver just had a cocktail of every imaginable drug. Pupils dilated, pedal to the metal.
The efficiency with which the coronavirus spread globally was unnerving. It went from a Chinese problem to a global crisis in a matter of weeks. But why were we so surprised? Cheap flights to every corner of the globe have been the norm for the last few years.
Before 2020 nearly every island, region and nation on Earth with something worth talking about was flooded with visitors from far-away places, thrilled to show their social media followers their every move, potentially picking up local viruses on the way, and bringing them home, while injecting billions of metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every day.
The source of covid-19 was originally believed to be a market in China that sells animals, both dead and alive. The original hosts of the virus are believed to be bats, which may have infected live chickens or other animals in the Wuhan market, although this still remains under investigation.
Regardless, the truth of the matter is that as human beings, our relationship with animals is complex. In some cultures, certain animals are treated as our own children, like dogs and cats. In others, these same animals are merely sources of food and subject to brutal exploitation before they are killed.
While such treatment often brings about international condemnation, other countries systematically treat different animals with similar cruelty, mainly to satiate public demand for meat.
Nearly all pathogens throughout contemporary human history (tuberculosis, measles, mumps, smallpox, etc.) are the result of animal agriculture, which arose approximately 11,000 years ago. Most coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, circulate around animals, including domestic farm animals.
Regardless of your world view, it is a fact that if more people adopted plant-based diets and avoided those of animal origin as much as possible, epidemics such as Covid-19, SARS and MERS could potentially be avoided, as well as the extreme cruelty and environmental degradation caused by this industry.
We could also significantly improve our health and prevent other health related diseases.
Social media has been helping spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus from all angles, some claiming it was created by the US government to destroy China, others saying it was the Chinese government bent on controlling the population and destroying the US economy, others that it was Joe Biden, Fidel Castro and Santa Claus conspiring to ruin Trump’s second presidential bid.
While this is a great form of clickbait, the most likely reason this thing exists and has spread so rapidly, is a convolution of complex factors, including our interconnected world and our not so pleasant relationship with animals.
Let’s just hope we can manage to sober up and learn from our mistakes before it’s too late.
Feel free to checkout the author’s most recent novel, The Shadow in the Mirror.
