The more contact these bats have with other animals, as well as people, the more opportunities the viruses they carry have to spill over. “SARS-COV-2 has been a humanitarian disaster,” Plowright said. “But can you imagine if it was killing half the people it infected after some period of asymptomatic transmission? That’s the risk we are taking here. And the quicker the climate changes, the bigger the risk grows.”
