I have a sneaking suspicion

[cilla4progress]

this is related to climate change.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I suppose it's possible. Do you see a link between them?

[cilla4progress]

5. I'm not a scientist, but my intuition tells me

It's an imbalance between population size and space - carrying capacity.

Why are rural areas supposed to be safer? And the social "distancing"? Too many living too close together. Like other pandemics.

[BigmanPigman]

2. I thought so too but have read and heard that it

is from an animal, likely a fruit bat. After that it mutated and probably went to a cat or dog or even another animal the way these things usually do. They have too many animals next to one another and near people at open markets. This is common in some countries. The quick spread is a result of our increasingly global societies. The soldiers in WW1 helped spread the Spanish Flu to the rest of the world.

[demtenjeep]

10. the plague was transferred with rats

anything can happen

[BigmanPigman]

11. Yes, the fleas on the rats.

Didn't they think it was from the water though? I think I recall that they stopped bathing and that is when perfume and wigs came in handy.

[Lulu KC]

3. I keep trying to remember what I read

about two weeks ago before this had become real to my limited imagination--the type of bat who is identified to have begun this virus cycle is overpopulating due to loss of its predator species. So ecosystem imbalance, extinction--all related. I really want to find this article. Will continue to search.

[Guilded Lilly]

4. Mother Nature.is.pissed. Humans had decades of chances...

Disrespected everything and she.just.got.pissed.
If humans refuse to protect her earth, she sure as hell will. And she will win. No contest.

[Flaleftist]

6. Earth about to shake off some fleas?

[sprinkleeninow]

7. We been piss poor stewards and our planet is letting us know. eom

[Niagara]

8. Coronaviruses are generally zoonotic

Wet markets operate all over Asia. There are cages of animals that are stacked up on top of each other and near food. All it takes is a bat to urinate, a person coming into contact with that bat urine and rubbing their eyes or touching their face. And that begins the spread of the disease.


Also, some countries have no regulations like we do in the U.S. My step-son visited South Korea awhile ago and he bought a fish on a stick from a food vendor. He started to walk away with the item and his wife said not to do that. He had to give the vendor the stick back so that the vendor can reuse the stick and hands it out to other fish on a stick customers. Not very sanitary by our standards.

[dawg day]

9. I heard a scientist say that one species of bats have many viruses

But they are usually not near inhabited areas. But climate change has damaged their habitat, so they roam farther and can infect domestic animals like pigs.

I don't know if this is a bat disease, but that could be a connection to climate change.

[safeinOhio]

12. In nature, population density has always played a roll.

Predators number rise and diseases spread. This along with starvation kill off large number and then the prey animals increase.