The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has drawn the ire of Twitter users after it tweeted a picture Sunday that said COVID-19 wouldn’t exist in a vegan world. The suggestion that pandemics like coronavirus are caused due to meat consumption resulted in people accusing the animal rights organisation of being racist and spreading misinformation.
With coronavirus claiming over 14,923 lives worldwide, users called out the organisation for its untimely tweet, while some said PETA was engaging in passive racism.
Others reminded PETA of the E. Coli outbreak, the source of which was believed to be lettuce.
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood company also didn’t hide its disappointment, while some users called for PETA to withdraw its tweet and delete its account.
PETA had written a blog post in which it maintained that raising animals for food in filthy conditions is a breeding ground for diseases that can be transmitted to humans. It said, For animals, the environment, and your own health, going vegan is your safest bet. Yes, even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
PETA drew some criticism earlier too when it tweeted similar views. On 20 February 2020, it posted, Carnivorous is an anagram of coronavirus. Coincidence? We think NOT!
Some users accused it of being tone deaf and the flat earthers of veganism.
The source of the coronavirus outbreak is believed to have been a wet market in Wuhan, which sold dead and live animals. This has opened up a series of debates on whether meat eating is solely to blame for the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.
Dr Stephen Felt, a professor of comparative medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, said, There are handful of food-borne parasitic diseases that one can only get from eating undercooked or raw pork so if you stopped eating pork altogether, you’d never need worry about any of those.
At the same time, Dr Felt added, But certainly, for zoonotic agents not transmitted through ingestion of infected meat, it would be difficult to claim with any certainty that the occurrence of these diseases would be reduced if humans began to consume less animal products.
Dr Homayoon Farzadegan, a professor who teaches epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at John Hopkins University added: Just living in close proximity with animals that are the potential reservoir of zoonotic viruses may lead to new transmissions.
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