Re:Detection of novel coronaviruses in bats in Myanmar
by throwanem on Sunday April 12, 2020 @12:36PM
(#22849301)
Humans and bats aren't going to stop interacting, not least because guano is an excellent fertilizer and the easiest way to get it is by giving bats incentives to defecate over your fields.
That being so, and given the utter implausibility of bat-butthole-swabbing robots or whatever, would you rather we had people taking the negligible additional risk of doing this kind of research, so that we have a chance of being able to prepare in advance for the arrival of zoonoses like SARS-CoV-2? Or would you rather be taken by surprise?
Going by the current state of affairs in the world, I have to say that being taken by surprise seems to have very little to recommend it.
That being so, and given the utter implausibility of bat-butthole-swabbing robots or whatever, would you rather we had people taking the negligible additional risk of doing this kind of research, so that we have a chance of being able to prepare in advance for the arrival of zoonoses like SARS-CoV-2? Or would you rather be taken by surprise?
Going by the current state of affairs in the world, I have to say that being taken by surprise seems to have very little to recommend it.