“Chinese food is unhealthy! Who asked them to eat meat? That too bats? Because of them, entire world is suffering!”
I am hearing such comments often. But is it true that Corona virus started spreading just because Chinese people ate non vegetarian food? No! They had been eating non-veg from hundreds of years. But why suddenly outbreak happened now?
Reason is, a strain of virus that used to infect animals got mutated and evolved into Corona virus. Mutation is the actual cause. But majority of people cannot understand the concept of mutation and evolution. So they are talking only about eating habits, but not about mutation.
So, can we blame the process of mutation? Is it rational if we say “mutation is bad! We, humans are dying because mutation happened!” ?
No! We humans evolved from chimpanzees because mutation happened. All the living forms evolved just because mutations happened in nature. There is biodiversity because mutations happened. Mutation is nothing but the change in sequence of DNA (the material that saves information related to all structures and functions of life in it just like a memory card). Mutation is neither good nor bad. It is just a natural process.
If we mutate and evolve into more adaptable forms, our survival rate increases. If other species mutates and evolves, its survival rate increases. If it is a human parasite (that feeds on humans), our survival rate falls down. Since our species is at threat, we react! But that doesn’t mean that the process itself is a problem. No one needs to be blamed, because whatever is happening is a natural process!
K L Niharika 