Can the world ban wet markets now?

[Smiledwiththerisingsun]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/ban-live-animal-markets-pandemics-un-biodiversity-chief-age-of-extinction

Is it possible?

I’d love to see this happen.

The Nipah virus is horrendous.

'...the world...' no.

China, some places in Africa and so on could. However, having spent a decent amount of time in these countries, I wonder how you ensure very fresh food, with patchy refrigeration in hot countries. Live food is the answer. If not that, then what. I've been places with 1 hour of electricity a day, or less. How do you stop everyone getting ill, and diarrheal diseases still kill millions.

Ok this article suggests just making them more sanitary would actually be more effective... and not mean millions of people lose their livelihoods...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/ban-live-animal-markets-pandemics-un-biodiversity-chief-age-of-extinction

@MrsTerryPratchett I have also lived in areas with very little electricity. It seems to be a question of development in these areas in general. That is perhaps what efforts should focus on.

Absolutely. Solve diarrheal diseases and then you probably work on this too. People only care when it affects them!

Is there any credible evidence that wet markets are linked to Covid-19?There is evidence that wet markets are linked to Ebola.

People only care when it affects them!

Absolutely.

Do you mean wet markets or the sale of animals for slaughter?

Borough market is a wet market. Your local farmers' market is a wet market.

Do you mean wet markets or the sale of animals for slaughter?

Although inaccurate, it's become common parlance.

@ElliFAntspoo

Yes there is.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/heres-how-scientists-know-the-coronavirus-came-from-bats-and-wasnt-made-in-a-lab-141850

I think we should ban ineptly run bio weapons labs.

I thought they had been banned in China for a while after another outbreak (SARS?) and recently restarted only for covid-19 to begin.

@Palavah it seems that the sale of live wild animals is the issue.

Yes you are right "wet markets" is a more general term for non refrigerated markets where water is used to keep things cool. Apologies.

The virus wasn't from a lab @PicsInRed

The world no.

The 'world' has no say in what happens in other sovereign nations.

We can huff and puff but we can not blow the house down if its far away in another country.

Im not sure Wuhan as a city is short on development btw. I think there may be electricity available in the city. I suspect there is an active choice or preference for not refrigerating going on... Which may be more cultural...

@SnowFields

I thought they had been banned in China for a while after another outbreak (SARS?) and recently restarted only for covid-19 to begin.

Wet markets are not banned in China. Markets which traded in exotic species were banned in Feb last year.

I think we should ban ineptly run bio weapons labs

The virus hasn't been shown to have come from a lab - at least not yet, though what could happen if it was ever proved it had is unthinkable

Markets which traded in exotic species were banned in Feb last year

They've "banned" numerous other things too, the manufacture of various fake goods among them, but it's one thing banning something and quite another stopping it

@ShanghaiDiva is Wikipedia wrong when it says wet markets were banned in China from 2003 (a genuine question, as I know Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source)?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_market
Wet markets were banned from holding wildlife in China in 2003, after the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak which was directly tied to those practices.[23] Such regulations were lifted before being implemented again in 2020

@Smiledwiththerisingsun

The virus wasn't from a lab *@PicsInRed*

That's China's story and they're sticking to it...except when they're claiming it started in Italy and also at the same time came from a US bioweapons lab. I mean, I'm convinced.

[quote SnowFields]@ShanghaiDiva is Wikipedia wrong when it says wet markets were banned in China from 2003 (a genuine question, as I know Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source)?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_market
Wet markets were banned from holding wildlife in China in 2003, after the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak which was directly tied to those practices.[23] Such regulations were lifted before being implemented again in 2020[/quote]
Well I lived there from 2008 until 2020 and I used to shop at them.

I think there is some confusion regarding how the term wet market is used. This is the term for an market not selling dry goods, so selling meat, vegetables fruit etc, but seems to get used as a description for markets that trade in wildlife. I have been to many wet markets in various provinces in China, but never seen wildlife for sale. Clearly, I am not suggesting that trade in wildlife did not happen, but this would not be seen at a standard wet market.

As the article OP linked to says too, the markets are just a small part of the problem... But everyone seems keen to ban something that doesn't affect them. Suggest to people they should change their own habits though and no one is quite so keen.

Quote from the article:
“Biodiversity loss is becoming a big driver in the emergence of some of these viruses. Large-scale deforestation, habitat degradation and fragmentation, agriculture intensification, our food system, trade in species and plants, anthropogenic climate change – all these are drivers of biodiversity loss and also drivers of new diseases. Two thirds of emerging infections and diseases now come from wildlife.”

@SnowFields it says en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_market
Wet markets were banned from holding wildlife in China in 2003, after the 2002–

Not that wet markets were banned as such. It seems to be the "bush meat" that is the issue here.

Maybe we can ban people from being poor. Surely it's only those who can't have meat delivered from freezer to home freezer that need them.

And bush meat? How is that different from a white man hunting for food as we all did in the old days before supermarkets.

@LastTrainEast it would be fantastic if we could redistribute our wealth & stop people being poor!