(emergency siren blaring)
- [Narrator] Millions dead.
Hundreds of millions infected.
Countless jobs lost.
Trillions in losses to the global economy.
Years of progress on global poverty
rolled back.
These are just some
of the consequences of the COVID pandemic.
We still don't know the full impact.
What we do know
is that this pandemic happened in part
because of our broken relationship with nature.
It was not a fluke.
New diseases are emerging faster and faster.
Infectious diseases like COVID-19
will appear again,
and sooner rather than later,
unless we get to the root of the problem
and prevent pandemics at their source,
at the point of spillover.
Zoonotic spillover
is the term used to describe what happens
when viruses jump from animals to people.
Just like Ebola, HIV, and now COVID,
most new infectious diseases
come from animals,
and the majority come from wildlife.
Unfortunately, spillover events
have been on the rise
for the past 50 years.
Once a new virus is in humans,
containing its spread
in our interconnected world
can be extraordinarily challenging,
especially if it is highly transmissible,
mutates quickly, or hides within people
for long periods of time.
Most governments remain focused
on improving the ability
of health systems to respond
after spillover has happened.
Investment in containment,
preparedness, and response
is important and necessary.
And also, not enough.
Spillover prevention is the missing piece
that will help us avoid
another global pandemic.
The main drivers of spillover
are tropical forest loss
and land use change,
wildlife farming, markets and trade,
and livestock production
in close proximity to wildlife.
(helicopter whirring)
When humans encroach upon forests,
we erase the natural barriers
between humans and wildlife.
Economic interests
are destroying forests
at an alarming rate.
Over the past 20 years,
we have lost over 60 million hectares
of primary forest
within the great tropical rainforests
of the Amazon, and Congo Basins,
and Southeast Asia
to land use change.
Every time humans cut down forests
for palm oil, soy, or beef,
timber, or mining, we increase contact
between human and wildlife populations.
And increase our chances
of a new virus spilling over.
Wildlife trade and markets
are another pathway for spillover.
Commercial trade in live wild birds and mammals
can increase the risk of transmission
of the viruses they carry to people.
Trade leads to stressed
and often injured animals
being moved out of the forest
and into crowded food and pet markets,
where they are mixed together.
This creates the perfect conditions
for the emergence and spillover
of novel viruses.
In certain contexts,
livestock production
can be a driver as well.
Increasing livestock production
near the forest edges
puts wildlife in close contact
with domestic animals,
leading to opportunities for spillover.
And the crowded conditions
on industrial farms are often similar
to those of wildlife markets,
with pigs and poultry
serving as ideal hosts for viruses,
often as an intermediary step,
as they move from wildlife to people.
Reducing spillover will be challenging,
but the good news
is that government supported prevention
can achieve rapid large-scale results
that reduce pandemic risk.
In Indonesia, there has been significant progress
in slowing deforestation
over the last four years,
due to a government moratorium
on forest clearing
and strengthened law enforcement.
Communities have fought back as well,
setting up health care clinics
and job training programs,
that have led to a 90% reduction
in the number of households
relying on logging as a primary income source
in those communities.
In China, the national government
has taken action to close wildlife markets.
And provincial leaders
have set up compensation schemes,
in which they help wildlife breeders
and traders to stop raising wild animals
and to participate in alternative livelihoods
like growing tea instead.
And in Northern Thailand,
villagers are able to track instances
of unusual disease in livestock and wildlife
through a locally built app.
This information is shared
with government livestock officers
who ensure that viruses are identified
before they can pass to other animals or humans.
These solutions have important secondary benefits.
We already know
that when we save forests,
we are combating climate change,
preserving biodiversity,
and protecting the original
frontline tropical forest defenders -
indigenous peoples, and local communities.
But now we know,
that when we fight for the forests
and their wild animals,
we are also fighting for our own lives.
Nature-based solutions to prevent future pandemics
are truly a win-win,
but these solutions need funding to scale.
The global cost of a comprehensive plan
to stop future pandemics
is estimated to be
as little as $20 billion annually,
with up to $10 billion needed
for spillover prevention.
This is a small price to pay
compared to the millions of lives
and trillions of dollars lost to COVID.
The COVID pandemic has taught us
that we need a new expanded approach
to global health.
We cannot rely solely
on a traditional public health response
to stop the spread of outbreaks.
Pandemic prevention is a global responsibility.
No one country can
or should bear the cost alone.
Now is the time for governments
across the globe
to address the root causes
of why and how new infectious diseases
are emerging,
and fund the actions we need
to prevent pandemics at the source.
By doing this,
we can stop the next global pandemic
before it starts.