SARS-CoV-2, short for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2, emerged in 2019, and SARS-CoV-1 emerged in 2002-2004 in China.
I think it is nonsense with the conspiracy theories that are going about that a Chinese lab created it as a biological weapon, and Bill Gates funded it. I hear these things from what I thought were solid Christians; it has been driving me mad with the gobbledygook. But we know for certain the virus is from the devil himself.
I have even got caught up myself in posting articles on the forums, but hopefully not too conspiracy-winded.
Scientist Wee-Joo-Kim has scientifically proven in Korea that the disease originated in bats. With the genetic sequence of the Coronavirus from bats and SARS-CoV-2 being 96% identical, the remaining percentage likely changed during the jump to another host animal.
Many viruses such as these come from bats and are zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted to humans from animals. Where it seems the bats contaminated the wild animals at the market, such as snakes, Pangolins or Civets, etc https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bats-and-disease/bats-and-viruses
Ebola
Marburg
MERS-CoV
Hendra (Henipavirus)
Henipavirus, Nipah
Lyssavirus
Viruses seem to have evolved with bats over hundreds of years, and bats have become immune to various viruses and have become part of the bats’ biology.
So, before the virus reaches humans, diseased bats would need an intermediate host to infect, such as snakes, Pangolins, or Civets, which were sold at the market. These infected animals with the virus must have leapt to people around them by eating unclean meat or by inhaling air from snuffling animals stuck in pens; imagine the surfaces being touched by people covered in the virus.
It’s good to read the Daily Express website titled “ Wuhan bans eating wild animals after coronavirus pandemic linked to city’s wet market” https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1284908/wuhan-bans-eating-animals-china-wet-market-coronavirus-epicentre.
The article reports that Wuhan, China, has banned eating wild animals. This is going to be tough because these foods are part of the cultures and traditions of different provinces in China. The article comes across as taking a strong position that the Wuhan government will be on top of this, checking places where wild animals have been sold or eaten.
This could be a reminder for us all around the world about what we eat. Here in Scotland, we have the Haggis, and they are dirty creatures being out on the hills (I am kidding). We are lucky that the ingredients in haggis come from farmed livestock.
Farming livestock are regularly vaccinated here in the UK to prevent a wide range of diseases. I am not sure whether we should be eating meat from wild deer, from which you get venison. The deer sometimes carries CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease), but the disease is not zoonotic, so humans cannot catch it. I am not sure whether the disease could mutate in the future. https://www.gov.scot/publications/chronic-wasting-disease
Looking to the Bible in Leviticus 11:1-47 and Deuteronomy 14, where we read a list of foods permitted and forbidden to eat, including bats, which they were not to eat.
The children of Israel were set apart from other nations because they had laws specifically for Israel, where God spoke to Moses and Aaron, giving the terms of the purity laws.
The deep love God had for His people led Him to give the laws from a mountain top, rather than to come to be with His people, indwelling in the Tabernacle.
The sacrifices, laws and codes of conduct were not empty rituals. God wanted His people who were sinful to be set apart for Him in a holy relationship where impurity could not be in His presence. Leviticus 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.
So God, in his careful, loving way, gave these dietary laws of animals, listing what they could or could not eat because they protected the health of the Israeli people, where they could have eaten unclean, infected meat, which could have spread throughout the camp.
In the list, they weren’t allowed to eat pork. I think this is because if the meat isn’t cooked properly, it can make you ill, but you can eat beef rare if it’s cooked all the way through to kill any germs.
Remember when the SARS virus started? They found out that a bat had jumped onto a Palm Civet. The cook who was cooking the Palm Civet got infected, maybe by touching faeces stuck to the fur.
But the cook got ill and went to the hospital, maybe with respiratory issues. The doctor helping or diagnosing him went to Hong Kong for a wedding and spread the disease alongside the wedding party.
These could be rumours, and there are many stories, but this is a good article https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/24/china.sars
So when eating meat, it is best to eat from farmed livestock and make sure pork is cooked properly.