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.

Yes of course viruses are natural entities but there is a huge amount we can do to prevent them.

The Chinese government is to blame for allowing prime conditions for transference of zoonotic viruses, i.e wetmarkets, to continue unchecked.

The Chinese government are also to blame for the cover up at the beginning of the virus outbreak.

The Chinese government are also to blame for the distortion of figures.

Their behaviour has cost potentially hundreds of thousands of lives around the world and the crashing of economies. Of course they should be held to account.

We already know where the pandemic originated from, and roughly how. It's not up for debate.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe

This article suggests that human destruction of biodiversity makes the transmission of viruses from animals to humans more likely. I think humans are to blame for the covid-19 crisis.

Nature and global travel.

The virus evolved and we carried it pretty much everywhere because of how we’ve evolved. I still find it fascinating how pretty much the tiniest, most basic (genetically) living thing on the planet has brought our civilisation to a halt. A good reminder we are connected to everything else on the planet even though some of us pretend we’re not.

Yy Tumbleweed101.

Once the pandemic dust has settled, I assert China will be public enemy number one.

I doubt it. We will still be completely reliant on China for manufactured goods. I also suspect they will come out of the recession more unscathed than Europe/the US. Also, the US under Trump has relinquished its usual global leader role in managing the pandemic so there may be a bit of a power vacuum that the Chinese will be ready to step into.

Chinese government. The ones right at the top.

Not even the lower, regional levels. They reacted to silence alarms being raised in the way they did due to a culture created and enforced by the higher power holders.

Made in China, not going to buy it.

Made in X Country, but with pre purchase poking about revealing the materials or parts come from China, making the X more fig leaf than fact. Not going to buy it.

Made in Italy, but it turns out the company was bought by a huge Chinese firm that imports all its workers and practically keeps them holed up inside the company. Not going to buy it.

The only vote I have left after 15 years outside of Britain is the one I can make with my feet, purse tightly snapped shut. I intend to exercise it.

Still going to have my purse open to our small, local Chinese businesses, namely the restaurant, the ethnic food shop in the nearest city, the bar and the hairdresser. This is in no shape or form their fault. They (and their compatriots back home) are as responsible for the Chinese government's actions as much as I am responsible for the British or Italian gov. actions. I.e....not. I have no rancour towards Chinese people (bar the ones in power). They know the loss of loved ones, the pain of not being able to go to friends bent double by grief, the river of tears as you watch the army take away the deceased in a fleet of carriers because local funeral services are overwhelmed, every bit as much as we do.

Being friends and getting on with anybody from anywhere as long (as they are an alright person and not a twat) still works for me.

But me and my purse know how to hold a very large grudge for decades.

Globalism can kiss my arse.

I love it when nature gets the better of human arrogance.

It does seem man-made in the sense that it seems to target not only the usual vulnerable groups but those with things like high blood pressure and obesity. And the fact that it never entirely seems to go away but lingers in the body and may cause future sickness. Seems so far removed from all the standard cold and flu viruses we normally get.

There's nothing natural about this virus.

I was watching an Australian investigation documentry broken where a reporter investigated Asian markets.

There's animals likes pets - cats and dogs, wildlife animals, exotic animals, in cages stacked up together. They are in markets for people to buy. The animals are not in their natural habitats and they are stressed in cages and that runs down their immune systems and encourages illnesses in the animals. A lot of these animals would never meet or pass in their natural habitats.

There's are other markets where the conditions are bio hazardous. There's live animals in cages like cats, dogs, birds, rodents, wildlife animals. Tables of dead animals layed out along with the cooking of animals in the same market. With the workers and the public going in. It's hours and hours of bio hazardous conditions.

There's nothing natural about this virus. Their market conditions have absolutely aggravated this to happen.

Now we are all going to suffer and be severely impacted in one way or another.

The loss of loved ones
The loss of work and incomes
A recession or depression
The possibility of homelessness

I don't want to google, as I'm worried about what images will come up but could anyone explain the concept of a "wet market"? Is it one that sells live animals?

China has a lot to answer for

Someone seriously suggested Bill Gates.

I may require some Tena Lady at this rate.

investigation documentry programme

To the poster saying 'enjoy isolation for goodness sake' - THIS IS NOT A FUCKING HOLIDAY!!!!!!

There are a lot of misinformed and het up people on this thread.

Viruses jump species all the time. Humans have a whole load of viral DNA in their genome, which we've picked up over the course of our evolutions.

It doesn't help that we live in such close proximity to animals, nor they to us. That just makes it easier for this to happen. It happens all the time, all over the world. Most times a virus makes the jump to humans, it doesn't really affect us. Occasionally it does. That's what happened here. I'm not happy about live meat markets and I think they should be banned anyway. But this jumped from bats and humans all over the world live in proximity to bats - we collect bat guano, and birds nests from caves where bats live and we live in forests where bats come out every evening to feed. Unlucky for us that it emerged in a massive city with great transport links.

A wet market is a type of market found all over Asia which sells meat, veg fruit etc. Prices are more competitive and products are fresher than in the supermarket.
Markets that trade in wild animals for consumption are completely different, but the term ‘wet market’ seems to be used by the media to cover these markets too. The wet market near my house in China is nothing like the photographs you find in the media: no animals in cages, no exotic species, no blood covered walls and floors. I am not denying such markets exist, but they are certainly not the norm.
The Chinese govt has banned markets that trade in wild animals and let’s hope these restrictions are being enforced.

That's really interesting ShanghaiDiva, thank you.

Has the Chinese government banned the sale of wild animals at these markets due to CV-19?

Yes.
They should have taken action after SARS, but didn’t.

The UN needs to work with poorer countries to stop wildlife/live animal markets.

Border checks on imports need to be doubled to stop people importing bushmeat and other products.
Maybe now China understands the risks firsthand, it will act. And stop trying to cover things up, such as threatening doctors who are trying to raise the alarm. Equally the idiot in the US Navy who fired a ship’s commander for asking for help.

Both Spectacularly stupid actions.

I'm sure it's human nature to desperately want to have someone to blame, even (especially?) in a pandemic.

I'm sure it's human nature to desperately want to have someone to blame, even (especially?) in a pandemic.

It's quite depressing though. The combination of anger, stupidity and paranoia is potentially dangerous.

When was the last time anyone here mixed in a market with rodents and bats and other animals, stressed in cages and had colleagues at stalls selling stuff and allowed the public to come in and roam around for the length of a working day.

Them markets have aggravated conditions for this to happen.

It does seem man-made in the sense that it seems to target not only the usual vulnerable groups but those with things like high blood pressure and obesity. And the fact that it never entirely seems to go away but lingers in the body and may cause future sickness. Seems so far removed from all the standard cold and flu viruses we normally get.

Why do people have trouble with this? This virus is the product of natural evolution. Shit happens. Not everything has to be the result of some super-secret covert ops. The world ISN'T a Michael Crichton novel.

I'm just grateful the bug behind this pandemic isn't worse than it is and that it's been so long since the last one of any real note.

And just because it's 100 years since the 1918 Spanish Flu it doesn't mean we're safe for 100 years when this one is over. This whole fucking thing could start all over again with a different virus next year. or the year after. Hell it could be happening right now.

It's life. We've just been lucky for a while.

It's not man-made, genetically-engineered or escaped from a lab.
Research on that theory began in late January and was recently published. It's a virus that originated in bats.