COVID-19 Pandemic: The 'Revenge of the Pangolins'​? 

Written by: Thomas Cornelius D. Afable | Published on April 18, 2020

Our world as we know it is a complex network of interconnected systems. All life on

Earth has a common antecedent from the smallest microorganisms to the largest
animals, everything is connected to everything. Many countries' economic growth
boost with the help of technology but along with it are many footprints of abuse and
dreadful consequences it leaves to the environment. The COVID-19 pandemic is the
defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest challenge we have faced
since World War II.

“Pangolins, not snakes, may be the missing link for transmission of the new
coronavirus from bats to humans.” ​[Misha Ketchell. Study shows pangolins may
have passed new coronavirus from bats to humans, The Conversation, April 2020.]

According to a 2016 report by the wildlife advocacy group WildAid, more than a
million pangolins had been poached over the previous decade. On Feb. 24, the 13th
National People’s Congress issued a decision “Comprehensively Prohibiting the
Illegal Trade of Wild Animals, Eliminating the Bad Habits of Wild Animal
Consumption and Protecting the Health and Safety of the People.”

One problem is that the regulatory framework in China hasn’t specified what wildlife
entails. Enforcement has been lax, and there were exceptions anyway for licensed
retailers, like Chinese medicine shops and online sellers. The latest ban also has
loopholes that will allow the trade of wildlife for medicine or research.

“Genetic analyses have come up short of pinpointing the culprit so far, but ​among
the prime suspects is the pangolin​, a long-snouted, scaly, ant-eating mammal
virtually unknown in the West but widely prized in China as a delicacy and for its
purported medicinal virtues.” [Wufei Yu is. Coronavirus: Revenge of the Pangolins,
The New York Times,March 2020.]

Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world. Tens of thousands are
poached every year, killed for their scales for use in traditional Chinese medicine and
for their meat with the largest demand in China and Vietnam. Eight pangolin species
that can be found in tropical Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are now at risk of
extinction. The meat is considered a status symbol. Pangolin hot pot is considered a
delicacy.

"Although their role as the intermediate host of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak remains to
be confirmed, sale of these wild animals in wet markets should be strictly prohibited
to avoid future zoonotic [animal to human] transmission," Dr. Tommy Lam of The
University of Hong Kong told BBC News.

A coronavirus can use more than one kind of animal to infect humans. Bats also
contain coronaviruses, which are closer to the human virus. A species of horseshoe
bat is the principal suspect which likely transmitted the virus to an intermediary host,
the pangolins.

“Human and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the
ecosystems in which they exist.” [Daniel Mira-Salama. Coronavirus and the ‘Pangolin
Effect’, World Bank Group, March 2020.]

"This is the time for the international community to pressure their governments to
end illegal wildlife trade," said Elisa Panjang of Cardiff University, a pangolin
conservation officer at the Danau Girang Field Centre in Malaysia. While Prof.
Andrew Cunningham of Zoological Society of London (ZSL) says that the source of
the detected coronavirus really is unknown and it might have been a natural pangolin
virus or have jumped from another species between capture and death.

Pangolins are known to host various strains of coronaviruses. "Identifying the source
of SARS-CoV-2 is important to understand the emergence of the current pandemic,
and in preventing similar events in the future," said Dr. Dan Challender of the
University of Oxford. With all the suspicion that humans were infected by COVID-19
transmitted by pangolins, it can now be spared from illegal wildlife trade and its near
extinction. Or will it?

As we continue to grow and create a greater impact on the Earth’s systems, it is

imperative that we address our role and relationship with nature. We have exploited
the world for too long and this health crisis that we face is its natural revenge or just
another consequence of what humans do. Our role within nature should be one of
subsistence and conservation for the next generation to see.
REFERENCES:
Wufei Yu is. ​Coronavirus: Revenge of the Pangolins,​ The New York Times, March
2020.
Daniel Mira-Salama. ​Coronavirus and the ‘Pangolin Effect’​, World Bank Group,
March 2020.
Misha Ketchell. ​Study shows pangolins may have passed new coronavirus from bats
to humans​, The Conversation, April 2020.
Helen Briggs. ​Coronavirus: Pangolins found to carry related strains​, BBC News,
March 2020.
Charli Shield. ​Coronavirus: From bats to pangolins, how do viruses reach us?​ March
2020.