On One Health Day this year, in the face of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot ignore the intricate connection between human, animal and environmental health. Increasingly destructive anthropogenic activities, such as extraction of wildlife, agricultural expansion and continued destruction of forests in biodiverse landscapes, have increased the rate of spillover of zoonotic diseases from wildlife to humans. On October 25, 2019, just a month before the emergence of COVID19, WCS, together with global health leaders, issued the recently published Berlin Principles on OneHealth. We must build back better, and greener, in a post-COVID world to prevent future pandemics.
Later this month, WCS and the German Federal Foreign Office will jointly host an urgent virtual meeting on how to operationalize One Health across the globe. Register to join here.
A new, bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. has the potential to help reduce the risk of future zoonotic pandemics. You can join the coalition speaking out in support.
