About 90 per cent of 1,000 Vietnamese people who responded to the survey last month said they were very likely or likely to support efforts by governments and relevant ministries to close all illegal and unregulated markets and restaurants that sell wildlife.
A total of 15 per cent of respondents in Vietnam said they or someone they knew had purchased wildlife for consumption in the last 12 months, 73 per cent believed closing illegal and unregulated wildlife markets would help prevent similar pandemics and 72 per cent believed closing illegal and unregulated restaurants selling wildlife would also help.
“It is time to connect the dots between wildlife trade, environmental degradation and risks to human health. Taking action now for humans, as well as the many wildlife species threatened by consumption and trade, is crucial for all of our survival, ” said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International.
The World Health Organization has reported that the current Covid-19 pandemic, along with at least 61 per cent of all human pathogens, are zoonotic in origin. Other recent epidemics, including SARS, MERS and Ebola, have also all been traced back to viruses that spread from animals to people.