Who or what do you think is to blame for the coronavirus? COVID-19

[haveanicedayx]

and do you think any changes will be made in order to prevent / reduce the risk of any other global pandemic in the future.

[Sunflower20]

Why don't you just name your thread - 'China to blame for covid-19'...?

There's literally a thread every other day about this, it's tiring and totally pointless. Just enjoy self isolation for goodness sake.

[Wannabangbang]

Man made to reek havoc and take down populations everywhere except it got out of hand

[MrsTerryPratchett]

It's wreak havoc. Unless you mean it smelled like havoc.

I'm not normally dismissive of people's arguments based on grammar and spelling. But in this case poor SPAG and poor STEM appear to merge.

[AndromedaPerseus]

China and The World health organisation (WHO) who didn’t declare covid19 a pandemic until 11.3.20. They were either leant on by China are just took their data at face value. Most countries didn’t take the necessary steps to contain the virus until WHOs confirmation by which point it was too late

[eaglejulesk]

My understanding is that it is a combination of human mistreatment of animals and overpopulation/international travel according to an article I read.

I agree with this. We need to take a good hard look at the way people have been living and implement changes in the future.

[Sennetti]

how and why were the bats stressed though?

[Boredbumhead]

I believe it may have been accidentally released from the virology lab at Wuhan, possibly when they illegally sold some lab animals they were testing on to the nearby wet market. That said the virus has taken hold so there must be some environmental element to this. Evolution and viruses are a symbiotic process. Perhaps it's a Malthusian response to overpopulation of humans. Who knows.

[Sennetti]

@Sunflower20 except some of us still have to work full time and be faced daily with the threat of this virus.....no enjoying isolation or furlough for some of us!!!

so we want to know!

[DarnedSocks]

how and why were the bats stressed
I should imagine being crammed into insanitary conditions watching and hearing fellow bats getting killed is stressful. The wet markets are incredibly cruel.

[HoffiCoffi13]

Just enjoy self isolation for goodness sake

You seriously think those who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads are enjoying self isolation? Or those worried about vulnerable family members? Or those who are still working as key workers and putting themselves at risk every day?
I’d be ‘enjoying’ self isolation if it wasn’t for the fact that my 60 year old mum is having to treat patients on the front line.

[haveanicedayx]

Sunflower20 Yes I should of ...Maybe more people would actually say how they really feel rather than being so bloody English and tiptoeing around in fear of being insulting. Someone needs to be done ?accountable for this!

[haveanicedayx]

something not someone

[Sennetti]

bats have been kept in stressful conditions previously so why now? whats different? or is it sheer luck no bat has shed this virus before?

[HappyHammy]

If its from bats how come it didnt originate in the zoo bat enclosures

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Someone needs to be done ?accountable for this!

Blame gives the illusion of control. Which is why it's tempting. Blame the gays for AIDS, blame the Chinese for this, blame Jews for the Black Death. People don't change. Viruses do.

[Fatted]

The umbrella corporation, that's who I blame.

[Cornettoninja]

Occams razor - the evidence for lots of viruses originating in other species is bountiful, there’s no reason to think that covid-19 is any different.

I do agree that we seriously need to re-evaluate our attitude to international travel. The most likely suspect for Europe’s covid-19 outbreak seems to be ski resorts in Italy which enabled it to spread out across Europe around the same time as the half term break.

We all travel easily, further and with more frequency than ever before in global history and this is proving exactly how transportable disease is.

America used to put a lot of money into foreign disease surveillance (there’s a rabbit hole if any of you fancy it - guess what Trump binned off recently?) because previous administrations took the threats seriously. Obama actively had people on the ground at the outbreak of Ebola in 2014 helping to contain it and strictly monitored its spread to the USA which was successful.

We can’t prevent nature but we are foolish to ignore what we’ve already learned.

[ChocAuVin]

It’s fascinating that there has to be someone/something/some group to be blamed.

Some things just are. Evolution is a sneaky bastard like that. Keeps us on our toes.

Not everything can be explained away with a bit of casually xenophobic finger-pointing.

[HoffiCoffi13]

or is it sheer luck no bat has shed this virus before?

Essentially yes. Viruses mutate all the time. It only takes one mutation to enable it to pass from animals to humans. That mutation may never happen... in this case it did. Epidemiologists have concluded that this virus leapt from an animal to a human just once... a complete and utter fluke. A disastrous one, however.

[Sennetti]

you think those wet markets in Wuhan 'just are' then @ChocAuVin ?

because i dont. i think they are vile, unneccessary and should be stopped.

[haveanicedayx]

xenophobic - wondered how long it would take .eyeroll

[DarnedSocks]

It's not xenophobic to criticise the wet markets. Many Chinese think it's disgusting. Like fox hunting here, views are mixed.

[Samtsirch]

@Sunflower20
People have done exactly that before and have quite rightly had their threads removed.
This seems to be a stealth approach to put forward a «blame China « thread.
Not helpful.