Coronavirus | Why pathogens travel in search of a host

The story so far: Long before the virus causing COVID-19 vitiated for the world many efficiencies it had taken for granted, it pit many over claims about how the vicious virus came to be in the first place. Moreover, commenting on the fact that bats and pangolins might have spread the infection, the authors said: “Given the similarity of SARS-CoV-2 to bat SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses, it is likely that bats serve as reservoir hosts for its progenitor… Malayan pangolins illegally imported into Guangdong province, contain coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-2.” Watch | All about zoonotic diseases While agreeing that it was theoretically possible that SARS-CoV-2 acquired mutations in a petri dish, the Nature paper added that “the finding of SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses from pangolins with nearly identical RBDs, however, provides a much stronger and more parsimonious explanation of how SARS-CoV-2 acquired these via recombination or mutation”. Human-induced environmental changes modify wildlife population structure and reduce biodiversity, resulting in new environmental conditions that favour particular hosts, vectors, and/or pathogens.” Consequently, preserving ecosystem integrity can actually help regulate diseases by supporting a diversity of species so that it is more difficult for one pathogen to spill over, amplify or dominate. Peter Beetham writes in the Scientific American that we must be wary of transmission from the plant kingdom as well — “The current COVID-19 pandemic underscores how unprepared we humans are in fighting zoonotic diseases: pathogens that originate in wildlife and jump to humans. Climate scientists argue and epidemiologists agree that ‘One Health’ is a key principle for the control of zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety and vector-borne diseases.