Veganism Can Help to Prevent Zoonotic Diseases
Introduction
The current coronavirus pandemic has caused heated discussions around the world about what caused it, whether we did enough to contain it, and how to prevent things like this from happening again. The source of the outbreak is believed to have originated in a ‘wetmarket’ in Wuhan, China.
In a vegan world the likelihood of zoonotic diseases being transmitted to humans and global pandemics is greatly reduced. There are many other benefits to a vegan lifestyle, including ethical, environmental, health, and social reasons. See this post for more information.
Zoonosis
A zoonosis (plural zoonoses, or zoonotic diseases) is an infectious disease caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites that spread from non-human animals (usually vertebrates) to humans. Examples of major modern diseases that are zoonoses include Ebola, salmonellosis, and HIV.
Zoonotic diseases are very common, both in the United States and around the world. Scientists estimate that more than 6 out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals, and 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals. Because of this, CDC works 24/7 to protect people from zoonotic diseases in the United States and around the world.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html
Deadly viral outbreaks that originated from animals
- 1967 — Marburg — Uganda — Bats
- 1976 — Ebola — Democratic Republic of the Congo — Bats
- 1999 — Nipha — Malaysia — Bats
- 2002 — Sars — China — Bats
- 2003 — H5N1 (bird flu) — China — Birds
- 2009 — A(H1N1)pdm09 (swine flu) — US and Mexico — Pigs
- 2012 — Mers — Saudia Arabia — Camels
- 2013 — H7N9 (bird flu) — China — Birds
- 2019 — Covid19 — China — Bats/Pangolins
The ’Spanish Flu’ of 1918
The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, lasted from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people—about a quarter of the world’s population at the time. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest epidemics in human history. Some researchers have theorised that it originated in a hospital camp in Étaples in France. The overcrowded camp and hospital was an ideal site for the spreading of a respiratory virus. It also was home to a piggery, and poultry was regularly brought in for food supplies from surrounding villages. Oxford and his team postulated that a significant precursor virus, harbored in birds, mutated and then migrated to pigs kept near the front.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu#Hypotheses_about_the_source
Videos
How wildlife trade is linked to coronavirus – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPpoJGYlW54
Why southern China is a hotbed for disease development – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb4oDJ4T1kE
Dr. Michael Greger on Pandemic Prevention | Infectious Diseases, Aids, Influenza, Coronavirus – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G20cooZOiYE
Antibiotic Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance has become a major threat to public health globally with approximately 700,000 people a year dying from antimicrobial-resistant infections. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance report predicted this will reach 10 million deaths a year by 2050 if no action is taken now.
A major cause of antibiotic resistance is animal agriculture, so going vegan is a great way to combat against this.
- “Chickens for sale in Britain’s supermarkets are showing record levels of superbugs resistant to some of the strongest antibiotics, new research from the government has found.” – www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/15/british-supermarket-chickens-show-record-levels-of-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs
- “Antibiotics are used more heavily in farm animals than in people. This may be the largest source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.” – www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistant-bacteria-travel-from-the-farm-to-your-table/
- “More than 70 percent of the antibiotics consumed in the United States go to livestock farms, one of the main triggers driving a rising crisis of antibiotic resistance in human medicine” – www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/12/another-novel-superbug-shows-us-hog-farm/
- “70% of Human Diseases linked to animal agriculture” – www.all-creatures.org/health/fh-human-diseases-linked-animals.html
Conclusion
Going vegan is one of the best and quickest ways to reduce further outbreaks and may potentially prevent millions of lives being lost from avoidable, deadly pandemics that may occur in the future.
Vegan Food
https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/recipes
Quotes
“Prevention is better than cure.” ~ Desiderius Erasmus
“As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” ~ Pythagoras
“When we suffer, we suffer as equals, and in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig, is a bear, is a boy.” ~ Philip Wollen
“While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?” ~ George Bernard Shaw
“The real struggle in being vegan doesn’t involve food. The hardest part about being vegan is coming face-to-face with the darker side of humanity and trying to remain hopeful. It’s trying to understand why otherwise good and caring people continue to participate in needless violence against animals just for the sake of their own pleasure or convenience.” ~ Jo Tyler
“I think highly enough of you to suggest that you can do better. You have the capacity to reach the moral standard that your intelligence prescribes.” ~ Alex O’Connor (Cosmic Skeptic)
“We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable, and then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf, and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.” ~ Joaquin Phoenix
“We kill billions of wild animals to protect the animals that we eat. We are destroying our environment to feed to the animals we eat. We spend more time, money and resources fattening up the animals that we eat, than we do feeding humans who are dying of hunger. The greatest irony is that after all the expenses of raising these animals, we eat them; and they kill us slowly. And rather than recognize this madness, we torture and murder millions of other animals trying to find cures to diseases caused by eating animals in the first place.” ~ Mike Anderson
“People think of going vegan as a deprivation. But it’s not a ‘giving up’. It’s a giving. It’s not a deprivation. It’s a joy.” ~ Jo-Anne McArthur
Other
Posts: http://luxbellator.com/veganism/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ForgottenVoicesScott/
Vegan Metal Songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk6rWgosTqy0ueQuDm32lPEjqabAKCHen
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