COVID-19 emerged as an endemic zoonotic disease and has now become a pandemic that poses a critical threat to global health security. Over the past several years, humanity has faced a number of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, Hanta, Influenza A (H1N1), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and now COVID-19. It is estimated that the top 56 zoonotic diseases are responsible for 250 crore cases of human illness and 27 lakh deaths worldwide each year. Researchers from the … Read More
Stop Villainizing Bats: Scientists and Conservationists Bust Myths About Bats and COVID-19
The world is currently battling a pandemic of an unprecedented magnitude. As scientists are struggling to trace the origin of the virus that jumped from animals to human beings, several factions of the media have already convicted bats of spreading COVID-19. What followed is a surge of requests from people demanding the killing or removal of the winged mammals from their neighbourhoods. Responding to this ecological crisis, a collective of bat researchers and conservationists from South Asia has come together … Read More