The document discusses the emergence of COVID-19 and hypotheses about its origins. It suggests that COVID-19 likely evolved from a coronavirus that can infect bats, pangolins, and other animals. One hypothesis is that human activity like habitat destruction is pushing animal species together and accelerating pathogen evolution, potentially causing new diseases to emerge. The document assigns a term paper to evaluate evidence for or against this hypothesis, with students analyzing sources on the link between habitat loss and disease emergence.

1. While covering Chapter 7 we discussed the concept of an
emerging disease. Today, as we are living through the extreme
consequences of just such an emerging disease, much of the
world’s attention is (rightly) focused on how we can limit the
impact of COVID-19 on the human population and how we
might eventually reduce or eliminate its ill effects.
However, thinking scientifically, it is just as important to
consider how COVID-19 emerged in the first place and how, or
even if, it might be possible to prevent another pandemic like
this from ever emerging again.
When we first talked about emerging diseases, we said that they
were often zoonotic (diseases that can infect multiple species)
or evolved forms of diseases from other animals. So far, the
evidence gathered from SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes
COVID-19) indicates that, in this case, it was likely a
combination of both. The Coronavirus strain that gave rise to
SARS-CoV-2 can infect bats, pangolins, and, if recent reports
are correct, dogs and tigers. It also appears to have evolved
since it first emerged as a human pathogen during the SARS
epidemic of the early 2000s.
The question remains:
why
do diseases emerge? Is it the case that new diseases are
constantly evolving to infect new hosts, and those hosts are
evolving to resist these diseases? Or is human activity and
habitat loss responsible for pushing organisms out of their
fundamental niches, thus causing organisms that normally
wouldn't interact to come in contact with each other,

2. accelerating the evolution of new pathogens?
The final scene of the movie “Contagion” (spoiler alert)
shows a sequence of events beginning with the harvesting of a
tree and leading up to the infection of one of the main
characters with the emergent disease that is the focus of the
movie. The implication being that habitat destruction was
directly responsible for the outbreak. This is not just the
construct of some Hollywood writer's imagination, though. The
producers of "Contagion" consulted with the CDC and one of
the epidemiologists responsible for eradicating smallpox to
ensure it was as scientifically accurate as possible.
While it is too soon to say, for certain, whether COVID-19 will
be linked directly to habitat destruction, we
can
form a hypothesis against which we can gather evidence:
The emergence of novel diseases is accelerated by human-
caused habitat destruction. Therefore the best way to prevent
novel diseases from emerging in the future is to reduce the loss
of habitat and specifically monitor locations where habitat loss
is greatest.
Your assignment for this term paper is to choose a minimum of
3 of the sources listed below, read or watch or listen to the
evidence presented, and consider whether the evidence supports
or refutes this hypothesis.
Then, you are to prepare a 5 page essay covering the following
points:

3. For each of the sources you considered:
A summary of the evidence presented.
How the evidence relates to the role of habitat destruction in the
emergence of novel human diseases.
Whether the evidence supports or refutes the hypothesis
presented above.
Based on your own synthesis of the evidence presented by the
sources you considered:
Overall, is the hypothesis supported or refuted?
What additional evidence and/or experiments would you
gather/perform to further test the hypothesis?
Whether you conclude that the hypothesis is supported or
refuted will not affect your grade on the term paper. Rather, it
is important that you demonstrate that you can consider
evidence impartially and evaluate it on its scientific merits.You
must work individually. You must cite the sources you
considered, using APA style, in a "References" section at the
end of your paper. Your paper should be a minimum of 5 pages,
not
including references or any cover pages, double-spaced, 12pt
font. You must turn in your paper using the "Turnitin" link
included at the end of this assignment by
April 16