By Khrishnav Parasuraman
An event called a spillover caused SARS, Ebola, HIV, and the new Coronavirus, and scientists think that stopping deforestation may help prevent the next pandemic.
Spillovers may not always cause pandemics because of the virus’s qualities and how the virus responds to humans. Biologists argue the preparedness of the world can also affect the virus. Biologists say it might help prevent spillovers in the first place to fight deforestation, monitor farmed animals, and limit the wildlife trade.
To do this, it might cost up to 30 billion dollars a year, but compared to the price we had to pay for Covid-19, which was 5 trillion dollars plus 665,00 lives that have been lost, it might be worth it to spend that much money. Also, to stop deforestation may cost up to 9.5 billion dollars a year, but this would preserve biodiversity and reduce carbon emission. Then, trying to regulate the wildlife trade would cost 340 million dollars a year. But this action could prevent viruses like SARS, which appeared in the Chinese wildlife trade market.
So in total, if we took these actions it would be a total of 31.2 billion dollars a year, but this is much less than the 5.6 trillion dollars that Covid has cost the world.
Sources: