In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which started when the virus SARS-CoV-2 jumped from animals into humans, we ask an important question — why are infections acquired from animals so dangerous to human health?
While it is not yet clear which animals were the source of the new coronavirus — was it bats? Was it pangolins? Was it both? — scientists are sure that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, originated from animals.
The numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the world are staggering. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 730,000 people have contracted the virus and 34,000 people have died.