By Brayden Yin

Dear Editor, 

I am writing to comment on “Cutting Down Fewer Trees May Help Stop the Next Pandemic”. 

I have found no connection between cutting down trees and stopping the next pandemic. It was mentioned that wildlife trade and farm animals should be monitored, but preserving trees won’t stop the animals from coming out of the forests to scrounge up food. 

The only connection between trees and viruses is when woodcutters go into the woods and catch a virus. Even if cutting down trees is monitored, there will still be some people who cut down the trees illegally. A suggestion I have is to bring up the H1N1 virus outbreak in 2009 because it spread similarly to coronavirus. Currently there have been 788,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus. H1N1 had 491,382 cases. There have been way more COVID-19 cases than H1N1, so it could help prove the point more to say that the more trees that we cut down, the more chance of having a pandemic there is.

I have one last suggestion. In paragraph 2, you said that the COVID-19 outbreak was most likely started from a jump from an animal to a human. Coronavirus DEFINITELY jumped from either a pangolin or a bat. I think the article would be better if my suggestions were accepted.

Sincerely, 

Brayden