this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
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Your compassion for animals is awesome but your information about how and why viruses mutate and spread seems very flawed.
Yes, viruses may spread faster through animals in captivity which could lead to higher rates of virus mutations. But no, it's not the cause of every pandemic you have ever heard about. Pinning the cause on one specific behavior is beyond false.
The black death, specifically, was likely transmitted to humans via fleas from rats, as an example. What's key, is that nobody has even been able to prove that completely.
Are you aware rats and fleas are animals too? Humans and animals living close together is the reason viruses mutate. It's why Europe had many plagues while the americas had none. As soon as Europeans landed there, we brought mayhem with all the viruses we brought with us. It's because we domesticated animals, while in the americas they did not. We had many rats because of the poor hygiene and living so close together, with others and animals. We should make sure we distance ourselves from many different kinds of animals to reduce the chance or mutations.
Mmm yes that's why explorers and colonists famously never got sick with diseases from the "New World".
Hides Malaria and Ebola under a rug.
And the big America-pox itself, Syphilis