• Lord Wiggle
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    -1422 hours ago

    Are you aware rats and fleas are animals too? Humans and animals living close together is the reason viruses mutate. It’s why Europe had many plagues while the americas had none. As soon as Europeans landed there, we brought mayhem with all the viruses we brought with us. It’s because we domesticated animals, while in the americas they did not. We had many rats because of the poor hygiene and living so close together, with others and animals. We should make sure we distance ourselves from many different kinds of animals to reduce the chance or mutations.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      27 hours ago

      Viruses mutate with almost every division. Hell, almost every strand of DNA that divides has mutations. It’s a natural phenomenon and not exclusively caused by one particular thing or situation.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation

      You seem to be mixing up a few key aspects of how and why new strains are formed, and somehow, you are overestimating the transmissibility of a virus between different animals.

      It’s like you understand some of the key concepts of this stuff, but animal domestication somehow got mixed in as a root cause for natural processes.

    • @Maggoty
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      113 hours ago

      Mmm yes that’s why explorers and colonists famously never got sick with diseases from the “New World”.

      Hides Malaria and Ebola under a rug.

      • Lord Wiggle
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        -29 hours ago

        Just because Europe was so packed with people and animals together so much more viruses mutated into plagues doesn’t mean other continents were immune to developing plagues. What is your point? You don’t agree living close with animals increases the chance of mutations? Or are you in favor of exotic animals in cages? Or do you deny Europeans brought loads of diseases to the Americas? What are you trying to accomplish here? All these things I wrote are scientific and historical facts.

        • @Maggoty
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          37 hours ago

          No they aren’t. Black plague was spread by rats and most likely came from the silk road. You’re talking about pop history, not actual history.

    • Jake Farm
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      fedilink
      English
      114 hours ago

      The Americas had less domestic animal species yes, but they had their own plagues, they just weren’t recorded.