SARS-COV-2 and biomimetics: What saves the planet will save our health

Abstract

The underdeveloped opportunity to use the broad awareness of the diversity of animal life and comparative physiology (i.e. biomimetics) as nature´s own road map to provide novel insights and solutions from burden of lifestyle diseases has recently been discussed. Since human health, environmental changes and animal welfare are closely related (i.e. the 'one health' or 'planetary health' approach), such studies require close interdisciplinary collaboration including medical doctors, veterinarians, zoologists, climate researchers, ecologists, biologists and anthropologists. The ongoing coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is a sobering example of the urgent need for global interdisciplinary collaboration, integrating human and animal health with environmental sustainability and ecosystem health. To begin with, it is worth noting that there is simply nothing uniquely Chinese about the COVID‐19 outbreak. The explanations for why so many epidemics seem to arise in China may not only be cultural, but also a matter of its current economic geography paired with the close interface between wildlife, livestock and humans. This is abundantly clear if we compare China to the United States, or Europe, when the latter were hubs of global production and mass industrial employment. The geography of blame, naming a germ after a country or ethnic group, has often been a symbol of helplessness during previous pandemics, detracting from the global aspect and unfairly labelling a country or ethnic group as being solely responsible. Ironically, the ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic of 1918 likely originated from a farm community in south‐western Kansas. Whilst previous pandemics were mainly linked to crises resulting from wars, the COVID‐19 pandemic is linked to a crisis based on environmental pollution, exploitation of the natural world, wildlife abuse and subsequent cumulative consequences on human health.