Why do so many viruses originate in China?

[ohhkay]

Please explain why SARS, Coronavirus and Swine flu have all started in a similar area.

Is it because the country is very large? Is it due to the large population?

Or is it selection bias?

Many other countries are densely populated with poor living conditions. And wet markets are not solely confined to China.

I'm genuinely curious, not racist.

@ChardonnaysDistantCousin - did you ever make them into bat soup? Because that is the issue.

No. Can't find the right recipe for it. Delia didn't cover this in How To Cook, for some reason.

This virus is in a specific type of bat's urine isn't it? And that under the counter sales (illegal) of snakes at the food markets contains this urine and because they don't have the same hygiene laws we have here is why there is such a high amount of such viruses.

I thought snake was legal foodstuff?

www.grouprecipes.com/52476/bat-soup.html

www.marthastewart.com/341842/spicy-bat-wings

The Martha Stewart one is your mundane chicken wing.

Not brave enough to click on the other link.

Got to love the instruction in the bat soup recipe:
"Remove meat from the bones and return meat, and any of the viscera you fancy, to the broth"
Call me unadventurous, but I can't quite imagine the thought process behind "Oooo, save that bit of intestine for me!!"

But then I'm still cringing over the senior gentleman in a Beijing restaurant who picked up an egg with his chopsticks - a clever feat in itself - and ate it, shell and all