[TownHall] The start of the Wuhan coronavirus has been traced back to a wet market in Wuhan, China, where exotic mammals in unsanitary conditions are bought and traded for consumption. And, despite what we know about the start of this virus, China has allowed wet markets to reopen, The Daily Mail reported. Even worse, there are no apparent attempts to raise hygiene standards to prevent another virus from emerging.From The Daily Mail:
Terrified dogs and cats crammed into rusty cages. Bats and scorpions offered for sale as traditional medicine. Rabbits and ducks slaughtered and skinned side by side on a stone floor covered with blood, filth, and animal remains.At another market in the southern China city of Dongguan, a seller was advertising bats and scorpions for sale.
Those were the deeply troubling scenes yesterday as China celebrated its 'victory' over the coronavirus by reopening squalid meat markets of the type that started the pandemic three months ago, with no apparent attempt to raise hygiene standards to prevent a future outbreak.
As the pandemic that began in Wuhan forced countries worldwide to go into lockdown, a Mail on Sunday correspondent yesterday watched as thousands of customers flocked to a sprawling indoor market in Guilin, south-west China.
But the scariest thing: the Chinese seem to believe the Wuhan coronavirus is done and over with, even though countries around the world are grappling with the virus. And it's why life is starting to go back to normal in China.
"Everyone here believes the outbreak is over and there's nothing to worry about any more. It's just a foreign problem now as far as they are concerned," an unnamed Daily Mail photographer said. "The markets have gone back to operating in exactly the same way as they did before coronavirus. The only difference is that security guards try to stop anyone taking pictures which would never have happened before."
This isn't the first time that infectious diseases have been traced back to animals, the Associated Press reported in February:
