Scientists Argue Better Conservation Will Help Fight Pandemics

More work is needed to stop the potential "spillover" of pathogens from animals to humans, according to scientists investigating pandemic prevention, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: 18 months later, the origin of COVID-19 remains a mystery.

In a report published by Harvard University, scientists from several continents argued governments should "integrate" public health and nature conservation measures to help prevent transmission.

The team believes that "reducing deforestation and regulating the wildlife trade" could come in at "as little" as $22 billion a year, roughly around 2 percent of "the economic and mortality costs of responding to COVID-19."

"Investments in outbreak control, such as diagnostic tests, drugs, and vaccines, are critical but inadequate to address pandemic risk," they wrote. The origins of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 to remain a mystery almost 18 months since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic.

Beijing last month said it would oppose continuing the WHO investigation into the virus' origins, which saw researchers visit Wuhan at the start of the year before positing animal-to-human transmission as the likeliest cause.

However last week, Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO investigation, told Danish TV that the theory the virus came from a Chinese laboratory was "in the probable category."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said "the origins study should be carried out in multiple places around the world and there are many suspicions on the US."

Research by the University of Glasgow and two Chinese universities and published by Science magazine listed "animal-to-human transmission associated with infected live animals" as "the most likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic."

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