COVID-19 and One Health

I write this in isolation, a welder-artist now sewing facemasks for family, friends, and strangers. I abhor COVID-19 and the resulting loss of lives. But, I claim its message as my own. 

My art revolves around the interdependence of human, animas, and environmental health, known as “One Health” in scientific circles. For people to be healthy, we need healthy animals and healthy environments as well. 

I learned about One Health in my former career as a wildlife veterinarian in Africa. I struggled to conserve species endangered by human activity and degraded habitat. This included testing wild animals for diseases ultimately caused by human activity and seeking ways to mitigate the harm: One Health in action. 

Long before COVID-19, humans indelibly marked Planet Earth, resulting in global climate change, world-wide nuclear fallout residues, and massive losses of species and habitats. Our alterations to the biosphere are so vast and unprecedented, scientists label the current geological time-period the Anthropocene Epoch, “The Time of Humans.” We know our damage to the environment causes drastic changes to animals and humans. Yet, we ignore One Health, denying and delaying addressing these global problems.  

For decades, One Health scientists cautioned that overlooking environmental and animal factors would allow the emergence and spread of new diseases. We ignored the predictions. 

Global trafficking of animals continued.  Wildlife from different continents ended up together in open food markets. This allowed the viruses of exotic and local species to intermingle with domestic livestock and humans.  We ignored the One Health danger of this mixing. 

A deadly virus mutated into being, quickly killing people in a foreign country. Our government leaders ignored their scientists and the clear early warning signs of COVID-19. 

The virus spread world-wide, leaving death in its wake.

Now, we cannot ignore COVID-19. Nor its One Health message. But, we CAN prevent similar pandemics through science and good leadership.