To think that China needs to act

[Dongdingdong]

From what I understand, the coronavirus originated in a wet market in Wuhan that sold animals both dead and alive. According to the Telegraph, these markets "pose a heightened risk of viruses jumping from animals to humans because hygiene standards are difficult to maintain if live animals are being kept and butchered on site. Typically, they are also densely packed."

Also: "The animal source of the latest outbreak has not yet been identified, but the original host is thought to be bats. Bats were not sold at the Wuhan market but may have infected live chickens or other animals sold there. Bats are host to a wide range of zoonotic viruses including Ebola, HIV and rabies."

When this latest pandemic dies down, the Chinese government needs to ban these wet markets entirely. Will the rest of the world be putting pressure on them to do so or will we simply continue as before until the next pandemic breaks out?

[Russell19]

Completely agree with you but it will be difficult as it's such a cultural part of their lives.

[alexasaymyname]

A MNetter who lives in Shanghai has said a while back the Chinese government are clamping down on these practices.

[WhereverIMayRoam]

From what I’ve read there is some confusion in the media about wet markets and wildlife markets. A wet market is just like a typical fresh food, fish market like you might see anywhere. The problem seems to be wildlife markets and from what I gather some wet markets will also have the wildlife/exotic meat which seems to have been quite popular. In February it was reported that the Chinese government was cracking down on these and banned the trade of @ 1500 species. I’ve no idea whether that goes far enough but I imagine the Chinese are very motivated now to make necessary changes given the impact of the virus on their people and economy.

[PicsInRed]

The official PRC govt position is that the virus originated in the USA. So don't hold your breath.

[BearimyJeremy]

Apparently according to radio documentary on R4 I think it was yesterday, it's not historically cultural, live exotic animal markets are something that have only been around for 30 years or so. And yes they need to sort it out.

[Popuppippa]

A simple, sustainable and sensible first step would be to separate livestock markets selling live animals from wet fish and butchered meat. Fundamentally this was caused by poor hygiene.

[Bluntness100]

Agree, and the world needs to take sanctions against China until the food chain and how they live and manage animals is controlled like the rest of the developed world. We have rules and regulations strictly enforced to protect both human and animal life. China needs to crack down,and the world needs to stop trading and allowing the population to travel out of the country until it’s tightly controlled.

[ZombieFan]

Yes we need a worldwide ban on fresh food and should only be eating processed sterilised food. Everything grow in a lab and chlorinated before consumption.

[Popuppippa]

@Zombiefan

Nothing like a bit of hyperbole to stir the pot eh? I don't think anyone was advocating what you've suggested.

[ConcernedAuntie]

I also hope that once everything returns to normal, if ever there is a hint of anything similar starting in whatever country that that country goes into isolation immediately. No movement of people, no flights, trains, busses into the effect area until it is completely free of contagion. And certainly not into other countries. I believe that a fear of being seen as racist and xenophobic has lead to the situation we have now all around the world.

[Nikki360]

Absolutely agree with you op and I'm actually angry that the world health organization and governments round the world haven't done anything before now. Animal welfare charities have been campaigning about these horrendous markets etc for years. Swine flu SARS they were all warnings and once it calmed down nothing was done. Unpopular opinion but I personally think China should be sued.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

I've been discussing this at length with a Chinese friend whose family mostly still live in the affected areas. Her opinion's that these practices are so deeply engrained that they'll offer nothing except a bit of PR to protect what's left of their international reputation (hence claims such as the virus starting in the USA and the fact that, knowing the virus was already spreading, they did nothing at all to restrict travel during Chinese New Year)

She's also of the view that the appalling social and economic damage will lead to China becoming closed again, with movement of goods allowed but not people - not through their own choice of course, but as a result of international pressure from others who've simply lost too much

Not being Chinese or having any real understanding of the culture I haven't a clue if this is realistic or not, but just wanted to share the opinion of someone who qualifies on both counts

[Newleafinspring]

Well, probably we should ban eating animals at all, since the swine flu comes from pig(280k people died because of it) , the bird flu came from chicken. And don't let any animal near human, you see the Mers come from the camel. And who knows what virus will come out of animals next time.

And who should apologize for the HIV?

There are lots of virus in the wild, and will try to jump to the human, that's the whole human's problem, let's try to defeat it. Stop the blame game.

[Bluntness100]

New leaf, don’t be silly. There is always going to be risk, but my having rules and regulations enforced about the food chain and live stock you mitigate those risks as far as possible., protecting both human and animal life.

Saying well there is always going to be a risk so we should do nothing is ludicrous.

And the bottom line is the risk is unacceptable in China, it needs to be controlled like most other developed countries , and if there is one country capable of doing it, let’s face it, it’s China, they are more than capable of doing this.

[Dongdingdong]

I'm just concerned that after this pandemic is over, it'll all go back to normal - then happen again in 10 years' time.

I hope there are severe consequences for China but I won't hold my breath.

[howsicklyarsekissy]

Totally agree with you OP! Let's hope people in power do something to try to stop this happening again.

[Bluntness100]

Once the panic dies down and we get through this, I think people will be very very angry indeed.

For me I don’t want punishment, I want sanctions and restrictions only to force a change in the management of the food chain and live stock to protect human animal health as far as possible.

[sunfloweryy]

Agree. China needs to crack down on this or face international sanctions. For its own sake as well as the sake of other nations - China has been the most affected by this and all previous outbreaks.

It is simply irresponsible for a nation where millions and millions of its citizens are wealthy enough to travel the globe to have such lax food hygiene standards. They need to buck up.

[howsicklyarsekissy]

OP Your question just been asked in the commons just now. They are going to ban the trade & consumption of live wild animals apparently.

[Bluntness100]

The Chinese are?

[DrSheldonCooperPHD]

This is a good short factual video on YouTube about the wildlife practices and how the Chinese government have supported/stopped them previously and why/how they cause viruses.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

I don’t want punishment, I want sanctions and restrictions only to force a change in the management of the food chain and live stock to protect human animal health as far as possible

That's more or less my own view, Bluntness, but even communists won't find it easy to control an entire nation and it's one thing banning practices, quite another actually preventing them

Especially when the state can be depended on to lie, lie and lie again for their own interests

[HappyHammy]

This was not the first outbreak that started like this so hopefully they will ban this disgusting practice completely.

[ShanghaiDiva]

They have already acted and introduced a ban.
I think we need to separate Chinese govt from Chinese people. The people have China have suffered more than any country with regard to loss of friends and family and huge economic consequences.
I have lived in China for 12 years and have never seen wild meat for sale in wet markets and never seen it in restaurants either. Wet markets exist all over China, but I don’t think exotic species are the norm.
There is no doubt that action should have been taken earlier, but the Chinese have also suffered devastating consequences.

[ForTheTimeBeing]

This is what we are talking about, for those of you thinking the concerns about live animal markets are not justified: