IPBES report: the planet could be affected by new pandemics, more serious than COVID-19



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Pandemics will be more frequent, spread faster, cause more economic damage and kill more people than COVID-19 if steps are not taken to stop the degradation of nature, international experts said Thursday.

The appearance of the new coronavirus was caused entirely by human activities, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Platform for Science and Policy on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), reports Agerpres.

The same activities that cause biodiversity loss and climate change also increase the risk of a pandemic.

Land-use change, agricultural expansion, trade, and wildlife consumption increase contact between wildlife, farm animals and humans, allowing microbes to reach humans, the group said. of 22 experts.

Scientists believe that the new coronavirus comes from bats and that humans could have been infected from wild animals traded in a market in Wuhan, China.

” Factors that increase the risk of pathogen spread, transmission, contagion and diseases between species are intensified in live animal markets, where animals are often kept for long periods in crowded conditions, with poor hygiene practices, mixed with various species and in close contact with large groups of people who travel from one region to another to buy live animals’‘is stated in the same report.

On the other hand, conserving protected areas and reducing the exploitation of areas with high biodiversity can dramatically reduce the risk of a pandemic, according to the report.

“We can go beyond the era of the pandemic, but for that, we must pay more attention to prevention and not just how we react.” said Peter Daszak, the researcher who led the study.

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