All researchers can say so far is that they have identified viruses similar to those that produce Covid-19 in horseshoe bats in China.
The question is: how did the virus pass from the bat communities – which most often live without ever intersecting with humans – to the human population? And especially: how did a limited number of people become infected with the pandemic?
Well, researchers have begun to find answers to these questions. And they suggest that after we get rid of the pandemic, we should rethink the way we relate to nature. according to CNN. Here’s what this is about.
Bats are the only mammals on Earth that fly. And flying, they travel long distances and, consequently, are exposed to a large number of diseases. In addition, a peculiarity of bats is that, in flight, their body temperature rises quite a lot, inducing a kind of feverish state. It’s normal for a bat to go through it twice a day.
And this means, among other things, that viruses and other pathogens that want to live in the body of bats must adapt and resist fever. So far, no major problems!
But when viruses pass from bats to other species – such as, say, humans – then things get complicated. And that’s because the human body raises its temperature, causing fever, to kill a virus. But the virus that came from the bat’s body is already used to thriving in feverish conditions.
But this means that a man, once infected with a bat virus, risks losing his battle with the disease and dying. So where does the pandemic come from?
Andrew Cunningham Professor of Wildlife Epidemiology at the Zoological Society of London says there is an explanation. And it’s all our fault, the fault of the people. Here is the explanation.
As we began to destroy their habitat, bats became increasingly stressed. And because of this, their immunity has dropped. And that means that diseases that once would have been defeated quickly, have now begun to manifest and affect bats massively. And the same happens with other mammals.
And in markets like Wuhan – where many species of wild animals are kept in cages, side by side, awaiting slaughter – viruses can mix. So the results produce bigger problems, especially when transmitted to humans.
But such viruses have probably been transmitted to humans throughout history. Why didn’t a pandemic break out then?
Scientists say that probably the infected person must either have died quickly or must have healed. Or maybe he gave the disease to a small number of people, some of whom died and others healed.
But in any case, in the past, a man infected with the animal virus did not transmit the disease to a large number of people, as has happened now. And this, for the simple reason that until a few decades ago it was impossible to travel in 24 hours from one end of the world to the other. And now you can, by plane.
All in all, people should understand at least two things about the current crisis, the researchers say.
The first is that bats are not to blame for the pandemic. They did not give us the disease, but it is possible that we made them sick, destroying their habitat. And we also took the disease from them, keeping them in cages and consuming them as delicacies. And now, if we study how their bodies defeat the virus, we could find a cure faster for us humans.
In addition, we should learn that it is not safe to destroy the habitats of other species before we understand the effects of our actions. That is, if we do not want to wake up soon, again, in the middle of a pandemic.
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