News

News

(November 03, 2020) 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, togethe...

READ THE STORY

(October 28, 2020) Bats are often maligned, despite the fact that they provide vital ecosystem services for our planet, and are truly remarkable animals!  Here are 10 Reasons to Appreciate Bats!And an important reminder from our epidemiologist Dr Sarah Olson: Bat Week and COVID-19: It’s Actually About UsPhoto: Nate Fuller

READ THE STORY

(September 30, 2020) If we are to reduce the likelihood of future pandemics like COVID19, the U.S. government has a critical role to play. WCS' Chris Walzer and John Cavelli write for Scientific American on the importance of coordinated federal action and a One Health approach to reduce the threat of future pathogen spillover, in particular from the high risk trade in live and fresh wildlife for human consumption:   We Need Federal Action to Prevent the Next PandemicWCS wholly supports the recently in...

READ THE STORY

(September 28, 2020) A new peer-reviewed article in Frontiers: "COVID-19 and the Curse of Piecemeal Perspectives” authored by Dr. Chris Walzer, Executive Director of Health at WCS, emphasizes: we know that SARS-CoV-2 originated in wild animals, and we know that human degradation of the environment and trade in wildlife is driving such emergence of novel zoonotic diseases as we increase contact rates between people and wildlife from biodiverse, formerly intact ecosystems.  We critically need...

READ THE STORY

(September 17, 2020) To reduce risk of future novel disease spillover with potential for devastating pandemics, we must address the commercial wildlife trade for human consumption. As WCS's Sarah Olson tells the Asia Society, our research has found an increased prevalence of coronaviruses in rodents along the wildlife trade in Vietnam, from trappers to markets to urban restaurants. Watch the video here:

READ THE STORY