Could mass veganism have helped prevent a pandemic?

The connection between Covid-19 and animal consumption has triggered folks on the internet to claim veganism wouldn’t have caused the outbreak. However, Kat Eschner at Popular Science reports that this claim does not consider the dynamic relationship between humans and animals. Namely, we interact with animals in many ways, not just on our plates. And while cutting down on our meat-eating would mitigate some risk, we need to be thinking of all the ways we coexist with animals (mice, house pets, pigeons, mosquitoes, etc) to improve our monitoring infrastructure and collective preparation for future pandemics.

The Counter Stories by our editors.