b'Is Factory Farming making us sick?While it does not pass easily from person toCOVID-19 person, of those who do become infected, approximately 35 per cent die 205 . It is mostSARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus which commonly associated with camels, 206andemerged in China in late 2019 and causes may be passed to people who work with,COVID-19. Its origins are still unclear, farm, or slaughter camels, or consume theiralthough early cases have been associated meat or milk 207 . with the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where live animals are densely packed in unsanitary conditions, alongside newly Severe Acute Respiratorykilled animals.Syndrome (SARS)In late 2002, cases of a mystery pneumonia- The most likely explanation at this time like illness began occurring in Guangdongis that the virus had passed from bats to province, south-eastern China. The disease,pangolins, who were traded at the market. dubbed severe acute respiratory syndromePangolins are hunted and traded for their (SARS), triggered a global emergency as itmeat, and also for their scales which are spread around the world in 2003, infectingused in Chinese medicine. Pangolins are thousands of people.said to be the worlds most trafficked animal 210 .The viruss natural host is probably the horseshoe bat and from there it passed intoOnce the virus had transferred into people, civets - a wild cat that is farmed in China.it spread around the world in a matter Other animals sold at markets including redof weeks, infecting millions and killing foxes and the Chinese ferret badger havehundreds of thousands.also been observed with signs of SARS-CoV infection 208 . It is possible that one of these captured or farmed wild species acted as the intermediary host between bats and people.Between November 2002 and July 2003, a total of 8,098 people worldwide became sick with the virus, and of these 774 died 209 .31'