Infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Greger has warned that the ‘next coronavirus may come from pigs, not pangolins’.
The plant-based medic, who warned of the dangers of a corona-like pandemic more than 10 years ago, made the comment in a recent video with Future Coalition – a national network of youth activists fighting for social justice.
‘Industrial pig farms’
“In 2016 another new coronavirus arose in china (SADS), a bat to pig virus that devastated industrial pig farms in the same region in China where SARS had broken out,” Greger said.
“So while pangolin populations are in decline, we produce more than a billion pigs a year, nearly half within China alone, raising the concern that the next pandemic may arise from domesticated rather than wild animals.”
‘Made in the USA’
Dr. Greger also spoke about the swine flu pandemic of 2009, which he says didn’t come from ‘backwater wet market in Asia, but was largely made in the USA on industrial pig farms’.
He added: “We may be one bush-meat meal away from the next HIV, one pangolin plate away from the next killer coronavirus, and one factory farm away from the next deadly flu.”
You can watch the full video here