The World Health Organization has categorized the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemicin light of its spread around the world. Ever since the first cases emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, there’s been much speculation — and misinformation— about the origins of the virus. And while scientists suspect it may have […]
Tag: coronavirus
Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry
Nearly 20,000 wildlife farms raising species including peacocks, civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been shut down across China in the wake of the coronavirus, in a move that has exposed the hitherto unknown size of the industry. Until a few weeks ago wildlife farming was still being promoted by government agencies […]
Illegal pangolin trade may have played a part in coronavirus outbreak
The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak, the disease now called COVID-19, crossed the 2,362 mark this week as confirmed cases surpassed 78,000, but it remains unclear how the virus arrived into human populations. Bats are widely believed to be the source of the new virus. Some findings suggest it did not jump from […]