David Quammen predicted everything. There would indeed be a new disease, likely from the coronavirus family, coming out of a bat, and it would likely emerge in or around a wet market in China. But what was not predictable was how unprepared we would be.
After the appearance of COVID-19 many dashed to the bookshops, for no other reason than the fact that Quammen had described the way in which the pandemic would arise, identifying a wet-market as the place from where the contagion would spread. COVID-19, however, is already a reality. What can we expect from the future? We discussed this and other matters with the American science journalist. To avoid future pandemics, he says, we must rethink our relationship with nature and recognize how our choices can lead to dangerous disruptions of the natural world.
When you wrote Spillover in 2012, you warned that we were going to face the same situation we're faced with now — a virus that spills over from animals into humans and spreads around the globe. And scientists warned us three years ago about the emerging novel coronavirus. Yet the world now finds itself unprepared for this outbreak. Has that surprised you at all?
Yes, the lack of preparedness is the only thing about this whole situation that has surprised me. I didn't have any illusions that the people who control the wheels of power and government were listening carefully to the scientists, but I thought they were listening at least enough to have some preparedness. Everything about this outbreak was predictable, to the scientists I
