What???

@WWF_DG, @WHO and head of @UNBiodiversity @mremae just making it up about the origins of diseases.

Might a bit of simple fact-checking have raised some doubts about this, @guardian @dpcarrington??

https://bit.ly/37GezkJ 

Zika was first identified in a monkey - which might have been 'under pressure' as it was in captivity - in 1948 and spread by mosquitoes - nothing whatsoever to do with "severe environmental pressures".

AIDS first jumped from monkeys to humans in the 1920s “probably” from humans eating said monkeys - no evidence whatsoever that the monkey population was under "severe environmental pressures".

SARS – origin completely unknown, WHO says “SARS-CoV is thought to be an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir” - so impossible to say this was caused by environmental pressure.

Ebola – certainly zoonotic, but there is no evidence of it being from “conditions of severe environmental pressure” whereas there *is* evidence it's long been present deep in the Congolese rainforest, most of which remains very much intact.

Clearly, agendas are being pushed here, on the basis of sheer untruths. We need to protect the Earth better, and be concerned about zoonotic diseases, but having such senior people making these completely unfounded statements is unhelpful, and deeply worrying.