As bats get blamed for coronavirus, the big problem is actually ‘human assaults on the environment’ | The Canary

https://www.thecanary.co/discovery/analysis-discovery/2020/02/28/as-bats-get-blamed-for-coronavirus-the-big-problem-is-actually-human-assaults-on-the-environment/

speculation about which wild creature originally harbored the virus obscures a more fundamental source of our growing vulnerability to pandemics: the accelerating pace of habitat loss.

Since 1940, hundreds of microbial pathogens have either emerged or reemerged into new territory where they’ve never been seen before. … more than two-thirds—originate in wildlife.