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This Virus Is 100% Natural
Here are four things COVID-19 is not.
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and the news cycle continues to wind down, the speculation cycle has began to spin up. In the past week alone, I have read articles on major outlets attributing the virus outbreak to the following: nature’s revenge, God or gods, and a secret lab in China. At first, these theories were fanciful speculation to be found in certain dark corners of Twitter but now, facing little resistance, they have began to emerge more publicly to the point where I feel like it needs to be addressed.
While it is fun and exciting to think that this pandemic is something special or supernatural, it is neither of those things. The only thing that is unique about this pandemic is that it is the first highly infectious pandemic to emerge during the 21st century’s information age. The response and handling of the pandemic by the world’s institutions is unique only in that the tools they are wielding are new to human history. Besides that, I am sorry to say, this viral outbreak is pretty run of the mill in terms of science and history.
Disease Path Basics
The emergence of new viruses occurs all the time and they crop up via transmission of a known source to an unknown source. This transmission usually occurs between people and animals and sometimes between two…