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Is human destruction of nature responsible for COVID-19?
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Eating meat

Eating meat, something that is extremely negative for the environment, caused the coronavirus outbreak.
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The Argument

Coronavirus is a type of disease that can occur in both animals and humans, like SARS. COVID-19 most likely began in bats or pangolins.[1] A study undertaken by virologists found that COVID-19 is 96% similar to a variation of coronavirus found in bats.[2] Reports have traced the earliest occurrence of COVID-19 to an animal market in Wuhan, China.[1] At this market, many types of animals including birds, snakes and rabbits are traded illegally.[3] It is believed that from here the disease jumped from animals to humans, perhaps being transmitted from bat to pangolin first.[4] Without reasons to be in close proximity to animals, without people eating meat - pangolins are sold because they're a delicacy - coronavirus would not have spread. Eating meat is already incredibly bad for the environment.[5] Now, it has caused a global pandemic.

Counter arguments

While COVID-19 has been traced back to a Wuhan animal market, it is not confirmed that this is how the disease spread from animals to humans.[1]

Premises

[P1] The coronavirus pandemic began in a meat market. [P2] If we did not eat meat, the pandemic would not have began.

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coronavirus-causes
  2. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.914952v1.full.pdf
  3. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-coronavirus
  4. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/03/18/coronavirus-fact-check-covid-19-caused-eating-animals/5073094002/
  5. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/07/true-cost-of-eating-meat-environment-health-animal-welfare
This page was last edited on Wednesday, 25 Mar 2020 at 15:08 UTC

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