It’s safe to say that we are done with the Covid-19 pandemic, and wish that it would disappear. As vaccines are developed and we learn more about the nature of the virus, we have been slowly figuring out how to continue on in a semi-post pandemic world. However, the worst scenario would be that once we’ve adjusted to living with the risk of Covid-19, we are plunged into yet another pandemic. 

So, the question on many of our minds is, how can we prevent or at least curb the risk of future pandemics? According to an analysis published in Science Advances, protecting wildlife could be the best avenue of pandemic prevention. 

Zoonotic diseases

The catalyst of Covid-19 was a zoonotic disease (a disease that is passed from wildlife to humans), however, humans have suffered from zoonotic diseases even before the pandemic. In fact, an average of 3 million people die annually due to zoonotic diseases. 

According to the analysis, if we halt the nature and wildlife destruction that causes more opportunities for human-animal contact, then that would greatly lower the risk of igniting another pandemic similar to the one we are still working through.

Plus, it would save the entire world money, since preventing nature destruction would only cost us $20 billion a year, which may sound like a big number but is actually only 10 percent of the economic damage we sustain from dealing with Covid-19 and other zoonotic diseases like Ebola, Zika, and bird flu outbreaks.

What should we do?

The paper goes on to disapprove of the way in which governments and policymakers have focused only on handling the outbreak rather than focusing on prevention. “That premise is one of the greatest pieces of folly of modern times,” says lead author of the study Professor Aaron Bernstein of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University.

Instead, the researchers suggest that we: invest in the global surveillance of viruses in wildlife, control hunting and wildlife trade, and stop deforestation, among other preventative actions. According to the researchers, these actions will not only prevent zoonotic viruses from spreading among humans but would also help support our planet’s floundering biodiversity and increasingly concerning climate crisis. 

“Our salvation comes cheap [because] prevention is much cheaper than cures,” Bernstein adds. “If Covid-19 taught us anything, it is that we absolutely cannot rely on post-spillover strategies alone to protect us. Spending only five cents on the dollar can help prevent the next tsunami of lives lost to pandemics by stopping the wave from ever emerging, instead of paying trillions to pick up the pieces.”

Source study: Science Advances – The costs and benefits of primary prevention of zoonotic pandemics