London: The UK needs to drastically
cut back its meat intake to avoid a future global health crisis, a group of
doctors have warned. Plant Based Health Professionals (PBHP) said that the
connection between major disease outbreaks and factory farming is being "swept
under the carpet" amid the coronavirus pandemic, as they join a wave of experts
urging people to go vegan, the Metro newspaper reported. The vast majority of
new infectious diseases that have appeared in humans over the past century have
been caused by tampering with farmed animals and their habitats, including
Swine Flu (pigs), Avian Flu (birds) and Spanish Flu (poultry).
PBHP founder and Consultant Haematologist at King's College Hospital, Shireen Kassam, said that another disease outbreak was "inevitable if we do not move towards a plant-based diet". "Disease is spread predominantly through confinement, we don't have the land capacity to feed the 8 billion people on this planet free range. We are in this race to find an antiviral, but other than HIV, there are very few viruses where there are very effective drugs available. (A vaccine) isn't just going to save our problems, there is a risk of a mutation that could come back in a few years." (IANS)
Also watch: An Exclusive with Anurag Saikia only on the Sentinel Assam