Coronavirus and the Chinese Wet Markets

Coronavirus and the Chinese Wet Markets

The whole modern world, with all of its technology, electronic connectiveness, internet in every pocket, etc., has been brought to its knees and into virtual quarantine because certain customs in China allow trading of bats, rats, pangolins, snakes, and all manner of protein-based life, including cats and dogs, for food.  Several outbreaks of infectious diseases SARS in 2003, MERS in 2012 and the current Coronavirus or Covid-19 in 2019-20 can be traced to bats or other animals, and transmitted from animals to humans.  Obviously, this is made easier if humans eat the animals in question in their soups. (What’s a pangolin? A scaly Asian anteater that looks like an armadillo).

Governments, including that of China, have tried to outlaw the so-called “wet markets” that traffic in live wild, exotic and domestic animals for food, but this practice is considered cultural in nature, and deeply ingrained in the basic psyche of many, particularly Asian, peoples.  This is a practice that has been in existence for literally thousands of years, so it is not that easy to stop completely.

The dietary mores of much of the world does not follow the Kashrut Hebraic dietary conventions as outlined in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  Most of the world’s dietary conventions derive from the recurring famines in history, and the availability of various forms of nourishment to sustain life.  So, eating cats and dogs and pangolins; and soup made from bats, is perfectly logical in some quarters, no matter how disgusting such practices seem to more finicky Western tastes.

Perhaps this latest gift from the Chinese wet markets which is resulting in a literal halt in human activity, thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars of financial loss, will convince all world governments, including the communist Chinese to finally ban this practice, and to impose rigorous and stringent laws and controls on activities that affect human food supply. 

These debilitating viruses aren’t only sourced in the exotic Asian wet markets.  H1N1, or “swine flu” came from pigs, which are part of our conventional food supply, through reassortment of genes in American and European pig herds.  Would the preventative caveat here be “don’t mix pig herds from different continents?’  Hardly possible in our increasingly connected world.  Perhaps we should have listened to Deuteronomy and Leviticus and the Quran concerning dietary restrictions concerning pigs.

Ray Gruszecki

March 17, 2020