PREVENTING PANDEMICS LIKE COVID-19 AND OTHER ANIMAL-TO-HUMAN DISEASES By Dr. Michael W. Fox
This following communication considers the genesis of zoonotic diseases like the current global COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to our treatment and consumption of other species. From a neuropsychiatric perspective it examines how we respond to such crises, their emotional and socio-economic consequences and what changes in human behavior are called for to more effectively prevent such catastrophic, anthropogenic health crises: “The time has come for us to rethink our relationship with all life on this planet – other humans, nonhumans, and the earth, a life form in itself. What is good for nonhumans and the earth is virtually always in the best interests of humans, given the profound interconnectedness of all life. All that we do depends upon abundant plant and animal life as well as clean air and water. Each of us can have a positive impact upon these fundamentals by demonstrating and inspiring an enhanced mindfulness, beginning most basically with what we eat and how all of our daily choices and actions may be affecting animals and natural habitats. Ultimately, the survival, not only of other life forms on this planet, but also of our own, will depend upon humanity’s ability to recognize the oneness of all that exists and the importance and deeper significance of compassion for all life” (1).
Our fear-based attitude toward viruses and bacteria is founded on our not appreciating how these and other micro-organisms function and help sustain this living world. Parts of them are in our DNA and vital cellular content and without them in our guts we would die in a few days. They can also play an environmentally beneficial role in regulating population density, in optimizing ecological biodiversity and reducing dysbiosis.
This current pandemic and other transmissible diseases that are likely to become pandemics in the future, call for ever more vaccines and medications. These are not-risk-free but will be our main, costly defense so long as preventive medicine remains human-centered and does not address, under the banner of One Health, our relationships with and treatment of other species. Specifically, wildlife farming, poaching and trafficking, habitat encroachment, our ever-increasing human numbers and consumption of animals wild and domesticated.
The concept of One Health is not new and perhaps has even enjoyed stronger endorsement and support in past decades prior to the advent of clinical specialization in human and veterinary medicine. Steps to achieving the end point of this concept and seeing it put into action internationally are well articulated by the One Health Initiative. (2) The COVID-19 pandemic, with more predicted, puts the applicability concept and its activation in bold relief.
A rise in zoonotic diseases is being driven by environmental degradation, according to a report by the UN Environment Program and the International Livestock Research Institute that cites rising demand for animal protein, intensive farming practices, exploitation of wildlife and climate change among key factors. The authors suggest adopting a One Health approach, which would unite public health, veterinary and environmental experts to respond to and prevent zoonotic disease outbreaks. (3).
Giving the public hope in protective, animal-tested vaccinations now being developed around the world and evaluating various drugs to treat infected patients may be to little avail considering how this SARS CoV-2 virus can mutate into a new strain or variant causing a different set of health problems and varying according to age, pre-existing health issues, sex and race. Vaccination limitations are a documented problem with the influenza virus that means some vaccine formulations that are not without intrinsic vaccinosis risks, will not provide adequate protection. Also, some vaccinations can mean increased susceptibility to other viral infections.
Regrettably, organized veterinary medicine in the farm/food animal sector in particular has prioritized human interests of profitability and productivity over animal health and well-being; and in poor countries and communities fails to adequately serve the animal health-needs of small producers where corruption, falsifying vaccination records and inadequate surveillance and prevention of zoonotic diseases have been well documented. (4).
Millions of mammals, amphibians, birds, insects and reptiles are imported legally into the US every year, potentially bringing with them “a kaleidoscope of pathogens,” writes former Fish and Wildlife Service inspector Jonathan Kolby. “With few exceptions, the US has no laws specifically requiring disease surveillance for wildlife entering the country, and the vast majority of wild animal imports are therefore not tested,” Kolby writes. (5)
While this reality may make one despair, all countries should be severely sanctioned economically for engaging in wildlife trafficking and for having open markets selling wild-caught animals. And there must be a redoubling of wild habitat protection from human encroachment with population control through voluntary and ready access to family planning, smaller families and communities needing fewer livestock to sustain their needs.
Philosopher David Benatar observes “It is curious, therefore, that changing the way humans treat animals—most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten—is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure.” (6).
In an article in the The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services the authors put the responsibility for COVID-19 squarely on our shoulders. “There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic – us. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, recent pandemics are a direct consequence of human activity – particularly our global financial and economic systems, based on a limited paradigm that prizes economic growth at any cost. We have a small window of opportunity, in overcoming the challenges of the current crisis, to avoid sowing the seeds of future ones,” (7).
Hopefully this global health crisis is catalyzing international collaboration in prevention and treatment. We may yet see the emergence of a United Environmental Nations that unshackles public health from politics, nationalism, isolationism and prioritizing the economy over the health and security of the people and links public health with environmental and animal health. Above all, humans should keep out of wildlife habitat where such diseases emerge and to which we have no immunity; and for consumers in industrial countries to support producers of organically certified foods to sustain a healthful vegetarian/vegan diet with minimal or zero consumption of eggs, dairy, meat including sea foods.
Continuing to consume animals as a basic food-source, marketing ever more vaccines and having ever more children, the rich and poor alike will be subject to the indiscriminate justice of natural law until we all abide in greater harmony with other species as well as with each other. Alternatively, with deteriorating natural controls of health-sustaining biodiversity, plagues and pestilences of Biblical proportions will be the legacy of our collective failure in planetary stewardship that surviving generations will inherit. As a One-Health advocating veterinarian I appeal to all consumers and governments to consider the impossibility of preventing such pandemics and other animal-food-borne epidemics and regional outbreaks of disease because of the enormous scale of factory farm animal production systems—billions of poultry and pigs world-wide that are the primary source of various strains of influenza virus and antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria ( 8). It is a matter of public health and animal health and well-being to put an end to all intensive forms of food-animal production.
At best, all the suffering, death, grieving and economic impact of this latest COVID-19 pandemic will change how we chose to live: Most especially to reduce our collective exploitation and consumption of animals that bring on such pandemics and other zoonotic diseases along with accelerating climate change and loss of biodiversity as well as animal suffering.
REFERENCES
1.Wiebers, D. O., & Feigin, V. L. (2020). What the COVID-19 Crisis Is Telling Humanity. Neuroepidemiology, 54(4), 283–286.
3.https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1067711
4 D.L. Krantz and M.W. Fox, India’s Animals: Helping the Sacred and the Suffering, 2016. Amazon.com
5 J. Kolby, To prevent the next pandemic, it’s the legal wildlife trade we should worry about. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/05/to-prevent-next-pandemic-focus-on-legal-wildlife-trade/
6 D. Benatar, Editorial: The Chickens Come Home to Roost. Am J. Public Health 97: 1546, 2020
7.J. Settele, S. Díaz, E. Brondizio and P. Daszak COVID-19 Stimulus Measures Must Save Lives, Protect Livelihoods, and Safeguard Nature to Reduce the Risk of Future Pandemics April 27th 2020 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
8.M.W. Fox Healing Animals and the Vision of One Health CreateSpace Books/Amazon.com 2011
ADDENDUM
PREVENTING FUTURE PANDEMICS
Relying on ever more vaccines and pharmaceuticals to treat emerging zoonoses, diseases transmitted from animals to humans, and mass extermination of animal carriers of such diseases, is profitable for a few but no solution when preventive measures are not put first.
An article by Laura H. KahnandRichard Seifman, It’s Time to Get Serious About Preventing Pandemics: A new World Bank/WHO Fund could treat prevention as a priority and for which the One Health interdisciplinary approach is critical (It’s Time to Get Serious About Preventing Pandemics - Impakter) spells this out very clearly. Kahn and Seifman state : “The good news is that the World Bank with the World Health Organization is about to launch a brand-new international multilateral financing mechanism called the “Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response” Financial Intermediate Fund (FIF) to provide long-term funding to address pandemics .FIF is targeted to reach $12.5 billion within five years.,,, Unfortunately, the preparedness and response parts of the mechanism are receiving the lion’s share of the attention and funding compared to the prevention part. …We must include veterinarians and other animal health professionals who receive extensive education and training in zoonotic diseases, and environmental health experts to be part of the pandemic [One Health] prevention solution. So far, their involvement has been minimal which jeopardizes the effort’s success.”
I would add a note of concern with regard to the potential pandemic-potentiating consequences of documented cellular, immunological and other adverse health effects of non-ionizing radiation from 3G, 4G and still not proven safe but now widely rolled out 5G telecommunications from cell phone towers and satellites.
Authors Hardell and Nyberg state that “In an appeal sent to the EU in September, 2017 currently >260 scientists and medical doctors requested for a moratorium on the deployment of 5G until the health risks associated with this new technology have been fully investigated by industry-independent scientists.” (Hardell L, Nyberg R. Appeals that matter or not on a moratorium on the deployment of the fifth generation, 5G, for microwave radiation. Mol Clin Oncol. 2020 Mar;12(3):247-257. ).
For further documentation see: Levitt BB, Lai HC, Manville AM. Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, part 1. Rising ambient EMF levels in the environment. Rev Environ Health. 2021 May 27;37(1):81-122 Levitt, B. & Lai, Henry & Manville, Albert. (2021). Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 2 impacts: How species interact with natural and man-made EMF. Rev Environ Health. 10.1515/reveh-2021-0050. and https://ehtrust.org/in-historic-decision-federal-court-finds-fcc-failed-to-explain-why-it-ignored-scientific-evidence-showing-harm-from-wireless-radiation/
WHY FAUCI’S LEGACY IS A FAILURE
The article by Ari Schulman, Why Fauci’s legacy is a failure (Star Tribune 9/1/22) underscores an essential flaw in the U.S. Public Health Service. As Schulman asserts, “A science that people will follow must lead.”
Science without ethics is hazardous: Ethics without science is vacuous. Science informs politics and ethics guide when politicians are committed to serve the common good and the good of the Commons. The science and bioethics of a One Health approach to pandemic prevention must be adopted by the U.S. Public Health Service. A One Health approach calls for informed public involvement linked with animal health (animals being the primary source of new and old pandemics) and environmental protection. Such an integrative approach to pandemic prevention rather than the marketing of ever more vaccines and pharmaceuticals is long overdue.