Deadly Pandemics Like Covid

If I was religious (which I’m not) I’d say Planet ? Earth is fighting back and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are on the move.

Sorry.....that wouldn’t help in the slightest.Pandemics will always occur, viruses and bacteria are life forms that exist and spread just as we do, we don’t cause them.

You could say that if we consigned planes to the rubbish tip then it would spread more slowly, but that’s about all.
Plagues have always spread in the past, however natural the lifestyle is.

Furret, Pestilence is at this time the front rider of the Four.

Lemongrove, I hesitated to reply to someone who prefaces their opinion with "sorry". Apart from your expression of
mock-humility your post is a recital of truisms.

Are you sue we don’t cause pandemics lemongrove? There are reports today from the exhead of M16 that Covid 19 was manufactured in a Chinese lab but accidentally escaped. I find it very scary what’s going on in these labs and it probably isn’t just China.

Sure not sue

Lemon we are not living in the Middle Ages or The Plague Years. And yes, we do cause them and enable their spread.

Take Mad Cow Disease, and it’s human form which killed hundreds. Look at MERS and SARS which were nipped neatly in the bud (luckily for the West) or Ebola which was directly the result of human activity or the Zika virus, to name just a few.

I don’t think you are qualified to make such sweeping statements (and incidentally the jury is still out in the scientific community as to whether viruses are ‘living’) but we do have the capacity to do better in future. Even though it’s a cliché this is a ‘wake up call’ and we need to clean up our planet, our politics, change our economic priorities and enable our scientists before something even more deadly emerges from our grunge.

Avalon one way we ‘cause’ these epidemics is by our intrusion into the animal kingdom for profit (eg deforestation) and thus forcing species out of their natural habitat into closer contact with humans.

Alexa you do seem to be turning into a English language snob ( on various threads) you will have to watch that superior attitude.?

Man has always eaten animals ( including bats and owls etc) and cross species diseases will always spread.
Furret...I don’t think that you are qualified to make sweeping statements either btw.
The point is, that even before labs ( and all contained therein that may escape) plagues spread around the planet.

Living in harmony with nature ( eating veg only) and living a simple life ( possibly in huts in a forest clearing) could be the only way to avoid anything nasty.?

Pandemics do come from abuse of the environment but will probably always be there because of man’s intervention.

If I lived in a forest with no source of income I might be tempted to use it for food and fuel.

But now we know better who wants to sacrifice their cosy modern lifestyle ?

Lemongrove, I am indeed an English language snob. Well spotted!

I also believe that the problem was caused by mankind's inhumane and abusive treatment of animals. Biblically ,man was given dominion over the animal world. This means treating them with the respect they deserve. Did this happen in China or even closer to home?

"But now we know better who wants to sacrifice their cosy modern lifestyle ?"

MissTree, that is the problem precisely and concisely.

In Biblical terms it's time to stand up and be counted as sheep or goats

Alexa....I wouldn’t rejoice in the language snob soubriquet if I were you.Certainly not on a forum where I have seen you take several members to task ( you aren’t in the classroom now you know.)It’s boring and insulting and I do wonder if you do this in real life, not an attractive trait.

Lemongrove, I am as attractive as any other normal person.

Lemongrove I reported your post for personalised generalised criticism. Gransnet, please note the comment box did not work.

It's arrogant to think we could control viruses.
We can only control our own behaviour until another one decides it is, as happens, one or more steps ahead of us.
They pre-date humans and will probably still be here on earth and other planets after humans become extinct.

In that case Alexa maybe give your inner teacher a day off.
Am sure it would be appreciated by others on GN too.
A forum ( threads) should flow naturally, and not be stopped by somebody who harangues others for their spellings, or anything at all in their written style.Only content should be disputed.

Quite right Lemongrove. I did think my comment rightly belonged in the forum about language usage.

We don't cause viruses. They exist, they mutate.
The latest one to spread is thousands of years old but we may have enabled its spread by our actions.
For whatever reason, via food or in a laboratory, it decided to mutate and infect humans.

The only thing mankind can do really is to stop eating certain animals once it’s proved that a virus is spreading to them via that route.
That and becoming really good at treating the infections.
Anything else is just wishful thinking.

I didn’t say we ‘caused’ viruses. Duh! I said we caused epidemics. It decided to mutate because it found itself inside a new ‘host’. That host unfortunately had the capacity to pass it on ti humans. It is these primary and secondary hosts that allow these viruses to mutate.

We can control the spread if we are alert (!) to new outbreaks. Had that young doctor in Wuhan been listened to things might have been different.

Callistemon was it arrogant to think we could eliminate smallpox? That was a virus. It was contained by science.

Yes you are right about eating certain animals lemon but we also need to look at the conditions that our ‘usual’ food animals are kept in. There is absolutely nothing, scientifically speaking, to stop some virus mutating in, eg, our intensively-farmed chickens, especially the avian types, and turning into something deadly.

No, you're right Furret we did eradicate smallpox but there are so many others and they have the ability to mutate. There are also many more stored in the earth which could be unleashed as the climate changes.

I see you meant cause pandemics and not cause viruses now, Furret.

We are responsible for trashing the planet and intruding ever further into remaining wild reserves bringing new viruses into circulation. We deplete resources at an unsustainable level, factory farm animals in wholly inhumane and unsanitary conditions. Perfect storms for more pandemics, now coupled with globalization. No doubt one will emerge from which there's no resistance. We are inviting it in.