The Suspect

Never heard of  pangolin, until the outbreak of the corona virus. They say it is responsible for the transmission of the virus to humans in Wuhan, China where it all started several months ago.

pangolin (web picture)

This ant/ termite - eating mammal is popular in east and south-east Asia for its meat and scales (used in medicines and jewelery).
It is not clear yet whether pangolin is the source of the virus or just  'the intermediate host', its transmitter from bats to humans.

 At any rate, it is believed that the pangolin is the 'chief suspect', and that the wildlife market in Wuhan is "the scene of the crime" .

pangolin (web picture)

The Chinese authorities have already closed the market down and taken drastic measures to increase penalties, strenghten enforcement, improving education against wild meat consumption.

The pangolin is considered the most trafficked mammal in the world.   Sadly, Nigeria (Africa) hasn't taken any measures against the trade of pangolin, even after the corona virus outbreak.

chinese pangolin  (web picture)

CORONAVIRUS

It's rather hard to concentrate on blogging when every day brings with it some bad news about coronavirus.

Our warning example is the outbreak in Italy. The italians haven't taken it seriously from the beginning,  and now Italy is completely paralyzed.
We, in Israel have taken it more seriously, and yet we are probably at the stage were contamination cannot be prevented any further, despite on going drastic measures. This is panicking, because our Health Care System will not be able to deal with hundreds  of corona patients simultaneously.

One would think medical people know a lot about the virus, and the only thing now is to come up with a vaccine.
Well, the corona seems to be very elusive. People that infect others are in many cases  asymptomatic, the disease is described as a mild sort of flu, but those who recover from it might still.infect others .

They say it is dangerous  mainly for  elderly people with chronic disease history. There's, however, a 38 year old driver with no such history (albeit a smoker), hospitalized in serious condition.
Now we have a 9-year old too on the list although they say the virus seems to avoid children.

Besides blaming the chinese for eating snake meat and bat meat, additional blame is put on the airplane. Yes.the vehicle that connects countries also helps spread the virus.  So, flights get cancelled, airports closed.  Nobody knows what next.

We are reminded to wash our hands thoroughly. That's something most of us do regularly.  Pity we are not reminded to watch our immune system and make any effort to strenghten it. That would be very rewarding.

Where does all this lead to, total collapse? Only God knows.