Sign Petition to Surgeon General to Ban Live Animal Markets

A Message from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

From: Neal Barnard, MD <[email protected]>
Subject: Please sign this today
Date: March 30, 2020 at 12:31:19 PM EDT

Let me ask your urgent help. Please join us by signing onto a petition to the Surgeon General to ban live animal markets in order to prevent further viral pandemics.

As you know, COVID-19 takes a particular toll in individuals with hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and lung diseases. Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted that coronaviruses are likely to recur seasonally, rather like influenza. This is of particular concern, given that circulating viruses can, through a process of genetic reassortment with other viruses, create new and virulent strains to which the population has no prior immunity. This was the reason for the influenza A pandemics that began in 1918 and spawned particularly deadly recurrences in 1957 and 1968, in addition to the annual recurrences that relate to more modest viral mutations. Just as influenza A is an avian virus, coronaviruses are animal viruses that pass into human populations though live animal markets.

The Physicians Committee is calling on the Surgeon General to use his authority to ban live animal markets in the U.S. and to seek agreements for the same action internationally.

If you would like to sign on, please sign our petition to the Surgeon General. We plan to submit the petition this week.

Thank you,

Neal Barnard, MD, FACC
President, Physicians Committee

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20016
202-686-2210 | [email protected] | PCRM.org