Page 107 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

transported into a densely populated area. This is what might
have happened at the market in Wuhan where the novel

coronavirus is believed to have originated (the Chinese authorities
have since permanently banned wildlife trade and consumption).
Nowadays, most scientists would agree that the greater
population growth is, the more we disturb the environment, the

more intensive farming becomes without adequate biosecurity, the
higher the risk of new epidemics. The key antidote currently
available to us to contain the progression of zoonotic diseases is
the respect and preservation of the natural environment and the

active protection of biodiversity. To do this effectively, it will be
incumbent on us all to rethink our relationship with nature and
question why we have become so alienated from it. In the
concluding chapter, we offer specific recommendations on the

form that a “nature-friendly” recovery may take.

1.5.1.2. Air pollution and pandemic risk

It’s been known for years that air pollution, largely caused by
emissions that also contribute to global warming, is a silent killer,

linked to various health conditions, ranging from diabetes and
cancer to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. According to
the WHO, 90% of the world’s population breathes air that fails to
meet its safety guidelines, causing the premature death of 7

million people each year and prompting the organization to qualify
air pollution as a “public-health emergency”.

We now know that air pollution worsens the impact of any
particular coronavirus (not only the current SARS-CoV-2) on our

health. As early as 2003, a study published in the midst of the
SARS epidemic suggested that air pollution might explain the
variation in the level of lethality, [107] making it clear for the first time
that the greater the level of air pollution, the greater the likelihood

of death from the disease caused by a coronavirus. Since then, a
growing body of research has shown how a lifetime of breathing
dirtier air can make people more susceptible to the coronavirus. In
the US, a recent medical paper concluded that those regions with

more polluted air will experience higher risks of death from
COVID-19, showing that US counties with higher pollution levels

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