spikeslovechild wrote:Neutral 123 wrote:Metallikid wrote:
Wet markets in China are very likely responsible for the outbreak of COVID-19, but this mindset of blaming the Chinese is completely useless, and here's why:
Other pandemics and moreover, animal-to-human transmission of diseases has come from across the globe:
MERS originated in Saudi Arabia
H1N1 Swine flu originated in Mexico
Mad Cow Disease originated in England
The cause, regardless of location, is industrial scale animal farming in poor conditions. That's it, full stop.
As long as we treat animals as nothing but meat that hasn't died yet, pack them into cages and buildings by the thousands, give them awful things to eat, and slaughter them cruelly after they have lived horrible lives - this will keep happening.
We all have to change and DEMAND CHANGE, starting here first.
I'm no vegan - I love how meats taste - but it is absolutely insane to think it is normal or okay to be eating as much and as many animals as we do today. It can't go on. Not anymore.
I would rather live a life where I only eat small amounts of meat each meal, or only in one meal a day, if it means that the animals are raised well, live good lives, and that a high risk of this kind of thing happening again is DESTROYED FOREVER.
This. To blame China is to miss the point. It's the worldwide exploitation of animals that is the cause. These intensive conditions, including ones in America are breeding grounds for disease. This is common sense but so well hidden from people's minds that it goes unnoticed. This will happen again.
American meat is inspected and there are controls put in place to trace and recall any defective product. Wet Markets operate without any oversight whatsoever. Their meat is not inspected. Their sellers are not accountable to the public at large.
Only someone grossly misinformed or a 50 cent army shill would use sophistry like the previous poster employed. They are not equal. There is nothing in the world that is 100 percent. Putting on a seatbelt won't guarantee your survival in the case of a car accident. Not smoking won't guarantee you from getting lung cancer. However, we do those things because we recognize that by wearing a seatbelt we increase our odds of survival in a car accident and that by not smoking we decrease the risk of lung cancer.
The idea well nothing is a 100 percent in this world so why bother trying is foolish. There is always room for improvement with inspection and enforcement of food safety standards but our meat is for the most part safe. Also beyond the wetmarket itself China hid the outbreak to the world in it's first critical month or so which according to scientists modeling increased the chance of a worldwide pandemic by 95 percent. They also didn't share the data once they made the outbreak public with the world. Once again preventing an effective worldwide response and forcing other nations to sort of figure out the best way to respond. So yes China is to blame you damn well right they are. The WHO was complict too by being in Chinas backpocket and recommending against a travel advisory/ban to China they allowed the infection to continue to spread by nations relying on their recommendations to formulate effective policies. So f them too.
The meat is generally safe to eat. These diseases are created among living animals. They are likely to then spread from animals to workers and from workers to everyone else.
I'm not going to defend China. The truth is, I knew how dangerous this was back in January. Governments around the world knew and chose to ignore what was going on in China. You do not block off areas with tens of millions of people without knowing they're is a serious problem. This virus was allowed to spread. That is a fact. To solely blame China is useless. I can change my eating habits and MAY actually be able to influence the type of response my govt provides in this type of situation. To just blame China is not only disingenuous, it also means we are left being mad with nothing that is actionable.






























