In 2017 annual revenue in China from exotic creatures reached $76bn, according to Peter Li at the University of Houston-Downtown in America
The latest research draws on data collected in early 2020, when the Chinese Centres for Disease Control swabbed surfaces in the market after it was shut down. Notably, the research finds that the animals kept there included raccoon dogs—which would have had the potential to transmit the virus to humans. The theory, then, is that animals transported to the market from outside the city might have triggered the pandemic.
Markets such as the one in Wuhan were greatly shrunk in the aftermath of a previous plague—the deadlyoutbreak of 2003 which was tied to wildlife trading of just this sort. Back then, scientists inside and outside China warned of the need to keep humans away from wild animals. “Operation Green Sword” seized 30,000 exotic animals from markets and restaurants in Guangdong, the southern province that had been at the centre of that disaster.
Yet individuals and companies who benefited from the wildlife trade resisted the curbs fiercely. Within months restrictions had been relaxed; business soon bounced back. By 2010 Zhong Nanshan, a doctor who became a hero during thecrisis, was warning a session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament that the wildlife trade’s resurgence was increasing the risk of a new disaster.
Since 2020 the government has once again stepped up efforts to solve the problem. That year Xi Jinping, China’s president, said that eating wildlife “without limits” was a “bad habit” that had to be junked. China has imposed a fresh ban on consuming exotic animals. But Mr Li, noting that trading creatures for other reasons is still allowed, wonders how long even that prohibition will last. He says the wildlife industry retains powerful influence within the government.
The argument that a leaky laboratory may have been responsible for unleashing covid on the world has benefited traders of exotic animals. They see a chance to avoid blame for a pandemic that has killed millions. But evidence in favour of either of these theories leaves China’s government with a lot to answer for.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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