Newsletter Subscription

Use this form to sign up for our weekly newsletter, in order to receive Event updates, special deals, and promotional coupons in your area. We will not use your email address to send spam, and we will not provide your contact details to third parties.
  • فارسی
  • Home
  • Near Me
  • News
  • Articles & Entertainment
  • Add Event
  • Add Business
  • Advertise
  • More
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Near Me
  • Events
  • Business
  • Tickets
  • Deals
  • News
  • Latest News
  • Latest Topics
  • Top News
  • Most Visited News
  • Articles & Entertainment
  • Articles
  • Travel
  • Media
  • Near Me
  • Entertainment News
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Health & Science
  • Iranians in Diaspora
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Blog
  • Travel
  • Tehran
  • Isfahan
  • Shiraz
  • Yazd
  • Persepolis
  • Kashan
  • Media
  • Radio/TV Stations
  • Music
  • Videos
  • More
  • Iranian Calendar
Kodoom
Kodoom.com فارسی
We Collect Iran-Related News and Local Events
Change Los Angeles
  • Home
  • Near Me
    • Events
    • Business
    • Tickets
    • Deals
  • News News
    • Latest News
    • Latest Topics
    • Top News
    • Most Visited News
  • Editorials & Media
    • Articles

      Entertainment News
      Politics
      Culture
      Health & Science
      Iranians in Diaspora
      Economy
      Sports
      Blog

      Travel

      Tehran
      Isfahan
      Shiraz
      Yazd
      Persepolis
      Kashan

      Media

      Radio/TV Stations
      Music
      Videos
  • Add
    • Add Event
    • Add Business
    • Advertise
  • More
    • Prominent Iranians
    • Pinglish to Farsi
    • Iranian Calendar
    • Search in:
  • Login
  • Subscribe
Home
Features
Health and Science

Videos: These Scientists Had Predicted Coronavirus Pandemic As Humans Damage Ecosystems

March 26, 2020
Health and Science , Culture , Society , Kodoom Official Blog

Health and Science Blog, Kodoom.com Editorial:
In this rarely seen 2010 video, Dr. Peter Daszak, the president of Ecohealth Alliance, discusses how pathogens from animals around the world create deadly disease epidemics, and how we should stop them before they affect the human population. He had predicted coronavirus-like epidemics:

In 2013, Dr. Daszak predicted that Chinese Bats may be carrying the next coronavirus like pandemic. Dr. Peter Daszak has researched for 30 years how deforestation and wildlife trade (an industry worth $76 billion and employing 14 million people in China) could lead to pandemics that could be even worse than coronavirus and could ultimately lead to human extinction. He believes plagues are not only part of our culture; they are caused by it! A comprehensive database reveals more than 3.2 billion live animals imported to United States over 15 years. Daszak’s team has estimated that there are as many as 5,000 coronavirus strains waiting to be discovered in bats globally. In many bat dwellings including mines or caves like the Shitou Cave in China constant mixing of different viruses creates a great opportunity for dangerous new pathogens to emerge.

Bats make up one-fifth of Earth's total mammalian population, the second largest order after rodents play a significant role in health of the ecosystem through pollination, fruit dispersion, and seed dispersion, as well as in the destruction of crop-destroying insects. The bat conservation group estimates their value to agriculture may be as high as $53 billion a year. Countless bats are being driven out of roosts in caves and abandoned mines by human activities because of inappropriate guano mining (bat droppings, or guano, are a valuable fertilizer) or thoughtless tourism. During the winter months, large numbers of bats hibernate in caves and mines. If roused from hibernation, often by human disturbance, bats can burn through the stores of fat they need to survive the winter. Loss of habitat remains the most widespread peril worldwide. The forests many bats use for roosting and/or foraging for food are disappearing at a frightful rate – shrunken by timber harvests or cleared to make room for farm crops, mining operations, cattle pastures or cities. This is especially critical in the tropical rainforests, with both a rich diversity of bats species and a precipitous loss of woodlands.

Daszak believes that spillovers of diseases from animals to humans are "increasing exponentially as our ecological footprint brings us closer to wildlife in remote areas and the wildlife trade brings these animals into urban centers. Unprecedented road-building, deforestation, land clearing and agricultural development, as well as globalized travel and trade, make us supremely susceptible to pathogens like coronaviruses."

The recent coronavirus is just another instance in the long history of zoonoses—diseases that jump from animals to humans. The domestication of the horse led to the virus responsible for the common cold in humans, while the domestication of chickens gave humans chickenpox, shingles, and various strains of the bird flu. Pigs were the source of influenza, and measles, smallpox, and tuberculosis emerged from cattle.

Three-quarters of infectious diseases are the result of zoonotic spillovers, and the novel coronavirus is no exception. In a prescient piece in The New York Times in 2012, environmental journalist Jim Robbins wrote about a developing model of infectious disease that shows most epidemics are a result of things people do to nature. Many ubiquitous modern diseases originated in animals. AIDS, for example, came about after hunters in Africa killed and butchered chimpanzees and the virus crossed into humans.

As humans push into increasingly remote places to extract oil, gas, minerals and trees, they come into contact with new species and drastically increase the likelihood of the emergence of new diseases. A global warming trends is also linked to an increase in the spread of disease (one need look no further than the spread of Lyme disease in Canada for an example).

World Bank is now calling for a “One Health” approach based on better understanding the linkages between poor management of livestock, unsafe food handling, environmental degradation, encroachments on wildlife habitats, and human illness. Simply put, animal health, people’s health and planetary health are interconnected and food systems provide an array of drivers for the emergence of diseases. In the US, CDC's One Health Office is managed by a Captain with Persian last name: Captain Casey Barton Behravesh.

Other programs to curb interspecies disease propagation are listed by Ecohealth Alliance.

Dr. Carroll (center) in Vietnam filmed for Netflix documentary series, Pandemic

Another scientists who saw the pandemic coming years ago is Dr. Dennis Carroll, a leading voice about the threat of zoonotic spillover. In 2009, Carroll formed a USAID program called PREDICT, where he guided trailblazing research into viruses hiding, and waiting to emerge, in animals around the world. He believes "It’s only in the last 100 years that we’ve begun adding people at a rate that’s causing this incredible disruption of the larger ecosystem.... It took us the better part of our total existence of the species, 300,000 years, before we hit the 1 billion mark. But in 100 years we’ve added 6 billion people and we’ll add another 4 to 5 billion before the end of this century... Humans don’t change and adapt and evolve very quickly. And we’re barely cognizant as a global society that the world we’re living in today is fundamentally different than the world our species has ever lived in. You know that old saw that if you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will leap out. But if you take that same frog and put it in a pot of ambient water and slowly crank up the temperature, it will stay in that water and boil to death. It loses perspective on the changing environment around it. We’re that frog in the ambient water. We’re oblivious to the conditions that have enabled zoonotic viruses to become integrated into us."

About coronavirus spread, Carroll says: "There are things not being talked about. Those are the things that worry me the most. This is a global event. It is going to hit every community everywhere in the world. And the impact will not be equally distributed because there are parts of the world that have health care systems that are far more fragile than ours or China’s or Europe’s. We know that when fragile healthcare systems have extraordinary new demands put on them, there’s an enormous risk those health systems will collapse. Specifically in the Africa region and regions where there’s civil disorder or war.. Trump administration is only interested in America first. Populism here and across Europe and elsewhere has fragmented the global network!"

Separately, The Event 201 pandemic exercise, conducted on October 18, 2019 vividly demonstrated the next severe pandemic will not only cause great illness and loss of life but could also trigger major cascading economic and societal consequences that could contribute greatly to global impact and suffering. Event 201 was a 3.5-hour pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic.

Wildlife pet and food markets in China

As journalist Emma Gilchrist puts it: "As human activity wanes, we are now witnessing the natural world react to the slow-down in all sorts of ways: deer wandering the streets of Japan, Venice canals so clear you can see fish, improved air quality worldwide. A reminder of the tremendous impact humans have on the world around them, often without fully realizing it. It’s also a reminder of the natural world’s ability to rebound and our ability to shift our behaviour when we absolutely must... a temporary decline in greenhouse gas emissions because of a deadly plague and a flailing economy doesn’t tell us much about whether this pandemic will bring lasting behavioural changes."

Other Great Sources:
COVID-19: A Look at Cross Species Transmission

The REAL Numbers About Coronavirus You Will Not Hear in Mass Media

Chart: Evolution and Genomic Epidemiology of Novel Coronavirus with Time

What the coronavirus pandemic tells us about our relationship with the natural world

How China’s “Bat Woman” Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus

The Global Virome Project: A global cooperative scientific initiative to massively lower risk of harm from future viral outbreaks over 10 years

Amazing simulations of an epidemic like coronavirus

Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve”

Official number and charts of Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

Visualizing the History of Pandemics

Decoding Covid-19

Related to Coronavirus:

  • Chart: Evolution and Genomic Epidemiology of Novel Coronavirus with Time
  • A Coronavirus Patient Dies in Gilan Hospital After Clergyman Rubs Concoction on Patients Lips
  • Video: Iranian Ayatollah Dies of Coronavirus After Claiming Eating Holy Dirt Cured Him
  • Coronavirus Leading to Divorce of Supposedly Lovers!
  • The REAL Numbers About Coronavirus You Will Not Hear in Mass Media
  • Iranians React Creatively to Coronavirus: From Licking Holy Shrines to American Flag Masks!
  • The Practical Iranian Solution to The Shortage of Toilet Paper in the US!
  • Independent News Bulletin: Coronavirus May Infect 30% of Iranians, Military Put in Charge
  • News Bulletin: Ayatollahs in Iran Overwhelmed by Coronavirus, Sanctions, Political Mutiny
  • Iran's Contamination Woes, From Coronavirus and Tehran Stench to Dead Birds in the North

Related to Health:

  • Chart: Evolution and Genomic Epidemiology of Novel Coronavirus with Time
  • A Coronavirus Patient Dies in Gilan Hospital After Clergyman Rubs Concoction on Patients Lips
  • The REAL Numbers About Coronavirus You Will Not Hear in Mass Media
  • Iranians React Creatively to Coronavirus: From Licking Holy Shrines to American Flag Masks!
  • The Practical Iranian Solution to The Shortage of Toilet Paper in the US!
  • Independent News Bulletin: Coronavirus May Infect 30% of Iranians, Military Put in Charge
  • News Bulletin: Ayatollahs in Iran Overwhelmed by Coronavirus, Sanctions, Political Mutiny
  • Fresh Street Food in Iran; And What People in Iran are Really Like
  • Iran's Contamination Woes, From Coronavirus and Tehran Stench to Dead Birds in the North
  • Elon Musk Supports Sacha Cohen, Tweets #DeleteFacebook: It’s Lame!
  • Why is Lifespan Dropping in the US and Iran?
  • Ping Pong is The World's Best Brain Sport!
  • Global Warming and The Selfish Humans: 200 People in 177 Cars!
  • Salmonella Infection Outbreak Linked to Moby Dick House of Kabob
  • Video: Stress, Lifestyle and Sugar Shown to Link Diabetes, Depression and Dementia
© 2025 Kodoom LLC All Rights Reserved
Health
Coronavirus

Nearby Events or Businesses

Advertise with us Sponsored Ad

Advertise with us

Advertise with us

Lower cost than Facebook, TV, Paper or Radio Ads: Show your ad to Geo-targeted users next to other top news and popular events for only $10-$50 per thousand viewers. Check out our advertisement packages.
Iranian Events Around the World Sponsored Ad

Iranian Events Around the World

Iranian Events Around the World

We process 500-1000 new events every month using data robots and user/advertiser submissions, and then list them on local maps in bilingual user-friendly Geo-targeted searchable formats. Try adding your event via our online form.
Iranian Events Around the World Sponsored Ad

Iranian Events Around the World

Iranian Events Around the World

We process 500-1000 new events every month using data robots and user/advertiser submissions, and then list them on local maps in bilingual user-friendly Geo-targeted searchable formats. Try adding your event via our online form.
Sponsored Ad
Previous Next

News

  • MOST VISITED
  • TOP
  • LATEST
Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza City, ...
BBC -   Sept 24, 2025
BBC and news agencies launch film calling on ...
BBC -   16 hours ago
BBC and news agencies launch film calling on ...
BBC - 16 hours ago
Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza City, ...
BBC - Sept 24, 2025
Trump to address UN General Assembly after ...
BBC - Sept 22, 2025
Starmer confirms formal UK recognition of ...
BBC - Sept 21, 2025
Israel will occupy more West Bank land, but ...
BBC - Sept 20, 2025
Portugal confirms it will recognise ...
BBC - Sept 20, 2025
One hellscape to another: Gazans tell of dire ...
BBC - Sept 19, 2025
US blocks UN call for Gaza ceasefire for sixth ...
BBC - Sept 18, 2025
Two shot dead in attack near West Bank-Jordan ...
BBC - Sept 18, 2025
'Cataclysmic' situation in Gaza City, UN ...
BBC - Sept 18, 2025
Israeli minister touts Gaza 'real estate ...
BBC - Sept 18, 2025
Thousands of Palestinians flee as Israeli ...
BBC - Sept 17, 2025
Israel launches ground offensive on Gaza City
BBC - Sept 16, 2025
Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN ...
BBC - Sept 15, 2025
Spanish PM calls for Israel to be barred from ...
BBC - Sept 15, 2025
Rubio meets Netanyahu to discuss fallout from ...
BBC - Sept 15, 2025
Netanyahu is only obstacle to bringing ...
BBC - Sept 14, 2025
First sick children have left Gaza for UK - Cooper
BBC - Sept 13, 2025
The Israeli army took over my home, used it ...
BBC - Sept 12, 2025
US joins UN Security Council condemnation of ...
BBC - Sept 12, 2025
Ros Atkins on... Israel's war in Gaza and ...
BBC - Sept 11, 2025
Israeli strikes in Yemen kill 35 people, ...
BBC - Sept 11, 2025
Qatar says search continues at site of Israeli ...
BBC - Sept 10, 2025
'Netanyahu, we're not leaving': Defiance in ...
BBC - Sept 10, 2025
'I thought the world was going to end', Qatar ...
BBC - Sept 10, 2025
Bowen: Diplomacy in ruins after Israel strikes ...
BBC - Sept 9, 2025
Tunisia denies claims Greta Thunberg's Gaza ...
BBC - Sept 8, 2025
Five killed in Jerusalem shooting attack, ...
BBC - Sept 8, 2025
Thousands throng Jerusalem to press Netanyahu ...
BBC - Sept 7, 2025
Israel destroys second high-rise as assault on ...
BBC - Sept 6, 2025
Hamas releases video of two Israeli hostages ...
BBC - Sept 5, 2025
Israel destroys dozens of buildings in Gaza ...
BBC - Sept 5, 2025
Israel dismisses 'spin' after Hamas says it is ...
BBC - Sept 4, 2025
Film about Gaza child's killing gets record ...
BBC - Sept 4, 2025
Thousands of Israeli reservists report for ...
BBC - Sept 2, 2025
Body seen in secret mortuary could solve ...
BBC - Sept 1, 2025
Gaza flotilla with Greta Thunberg on board ...
BBC - Sept 1, 2025
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world's ...
BBC - Sept 1, 2025
US suspends most visas for Palestinian ...
BBC - Sept 1, 2025
UN chief demands release of 11 staff arrested ...
BBC - Sept 1, 2025
Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida killed in Gaza, ...
BBC - Aug 31, 2025
Houthis confirm their prime minister killed in ...
BBC - Aug 30, 2025
US to stop Palestinians attending UN meeting ...
BBC - Aug 29, 2025
Body of Israeli hostage recovered in Gaza, IDF ...
BBC - Aug 29, 2025
New footage shows Israel struck Gaza's Nasser ...
BBC - Aug 28, 2025
UK, France and Germany move to reimpose UN ...
BBC - Aug 28, 2025
Israeli strikes kill six Syrian troops, Syria says
BBC - Aug 28, 2025
Blair joins White House meeting with Trump on ...
BBC - Aug 27, 2025
'Exhausted, hungry, and scared': What it's ...
BBC - Aug 27, 2025
UN demands justice over Israeli double strike ...
BBC - Aug 26, 2025
Australia accuses Iran of directing ...
BBC - Aug 26, 2025
Israeli double strike on Gaza hospital - what ...
BBC - Aug 25, 2025
At least eight killed in Israeli strike on ...
BBC - Aug 25, 2025
Israel must take hostage deal, its military ...
BBC - Aug 24, 2025
Israel pounds Gaza City in preparation for ...
BBC - Aug 24, 2025
'My youngest child doesn't know what fruit ...
BBC - Aug 22, 2025
Famine confirmed in Gaza City for first time, ...
BBC - Aug 22, 2025
Israel tells medics and aid groups to prepare ...
BBC - Aug 21, 2025
UK backs call for Israel to allow foreign ...
BBC - Aug 21, 2025
Pope Leo XIV to travel to Lebanon in likely ...
BBC - Aug 21, 2025
Israeli military says first stages of assault ...
BBC - Aug 20, 2025
Israel approves controversial West Bank ...
BBC - Aug 20, 2025
Netanyahu accuses Australian PM of 'betraying' ...
BBC - Aug 19, 2025
Mediators await Israeli response to new Gaza ...
BBC - Aug 19, 2025
Hamas agrees to latest Gaza ceasefire ...
BBC - Aug 18, 2025
First group of Gaza children to be brought to ...
BBC - Aug 18, 2025
BBC witnesses Israeli settlers' attack on ...
BBC - Aug 18, 2025
Huge crowds gather in Israel calling for ...
BBC - Aug 17, 2025
Palestinians flee IDF attacks on Gaza City as ...
BBC - Aug 17, 2025
War crimes likely committed in Syria coastal ...
BBC - Aug 15, 2025
Far-right Israeli minister taunts prominent ...
BBC - Aug 15, 2025
Bowen: Netanyahu is presiding over a divided ...
BBC - Aug 14, 2025
Israeli settlement plans will 'bury' idea of ...
BBC - Aug 14, 2025
New Israeli rules stopping critical aid ...
BBC - Aug 13, 2025
Gaza talks to focus on releasing hostages all ...
BBC - Aug 13, 2025
UK, France and Germany ready to reimpose ...
BBC - Aug 13, 2025
Israel bombards Gaza City as UK and allies ...
BBC - Aug 12, 2025
Who were the Al Jazeera journalists killed by ...
BBC - Aug 12, 2025
Australia PM says Israel's Netanyahu 'in ...
BBC - Aug 11, 2025
UN condemns targeted Israeli attack that ...
BBC - Aug 11, 2025
Five Al Jazeera journalists killed in Israeli ...
BBC - Aug 11, 2025
Bowen: Israeli settlers intensify campaign to ...
BBC - Aug 10, 2025
Eleven more die from malnutrition in Gaza, ...
BBC - Aug 9, 2025
Israel's Gaza City plan means more misery for ...
BBC - Aug 8, 2025
Israel's Gaza escalation 'means abandoning ...
BBC - Aug 8, 2025
Netanyahu says Israel intends to take complete ...
BBC - Aug 7, 2025
Twenty killed after trucks overturn in Gaza, ...
BBC - Aug 6, 2025
'A grave sin': Hezbollah dismisses Lebanon's ...
BBC - Aug 6, 2025
The secret system Hamas uses to pay government ...
BBC - Aug 6, 2025
Netanyahu to propose full reoccupation of ...
BBC - Aug 5, 2025
He is a human skeleton, Gaza hostage's brother ...
BBC - Aug 4, 2025
Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to ...
BBC - Aug 4, 2025
Dozens of migrants die in boat capsize off Yemen
BBC - Aug 3, 2025
Aid group says worker killed by Israeli ...
BBC - Aug 3, 2025
Leaders condemn videos of emaciated hostages ...
BBC - Aug 3, 2025
Israeli minister sparks anger by praying at ...
BBC - Aug 3, 2025
Hamas refuses to disarm until Palestinian ...
BBC - Aug 2, 2025
'Thank you, but it's too late': Why some ...
BBC - Aug 1, 2025
Canada follows France and UK with plan to ...
BBC - July 31, 2025
Dozens killed seeking food in Gaza, hospital ...
BBC - July 31, 2025

Editorials

 Iranian American Women in the 119th US Congress

Iranian American Women in the 119th US Congress

Iran, Israel, Middle East Update September 2025

Iran, Israel, Middle East Update September 2025

Latest News, Patterns and Trends on Iran, Israel, Middle East

Latest News, Patterns and Trends on Iran, Israel, Middle East

Iran and Israel on the Verge: Latest Updates, Rarely Seen in Mass ...

Iran and Israel on the Verge: Latest Updates, Rarely Seen in Mass ...

Famous Pro-Trump Influencers Oppose Him on Israel, Iran, Epstein Files

Famous Pro-Trump Influencers Oppose Him on Israel, Iran, Epstein Files

Music for Your Soul from Pete Seeger

Advertise with us
Lower cost than Facebook, TV, Paper or radio Ads: Reach Geo-targeted users for only $10-$50 per thousand viewers. Check out our advertisement packages.
Need our help?
Our growth depends on serving our user community. Email our Customer Support with questions, comments, business offers, interesting news, video links, etc.

About us

  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Tickets and Advertisement
  • How to Link to us

Add to our listings

  • An Event
  • A Local Business
  • A Distinguished Iranian

Near You

  • Events
  • Tickets
  • Coupons
  • Local Ads

My Account

  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Change Location
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
© 2025 Kodoom LLC, All Rights Reserved. An independent private partnership incorporated in USA.
Kodoom is a Search and Listing Service and not responsible for contents and accuracy of listings, maps and advertisements.
Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.