In Parliament today (17^th March), Michael Fabricant told the Foreign Secretary that nations must now work together to stop anything like Covid-19 (Coronavirus) occurring again.  “We know the cause” he says.

In the House of Commons Chamber Michael Fabricant said: “SARS, Swine Flu and now Coronavirus, are all thought to have emanated from unsanitary wet butcheries in East Asia and China. What can my Right Honourable Friend do to coordinate an effort, perhaps after all this is over, to try and prevent any disease like this, from ever starting in such places again?”

Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary replied: “My Honourable Friend is absolutely right that addressing the root causes of COVID-19, but also similar potential pandemics, will require close cooperation with the international community, including China and other Southeast Asian partners. We welcome with that in mind the Chinese government’s decision on the 24th of February to move to make permanent the temporary ban on the trade and the consumption of live wild animals.”

Michael now says “The disgusting and cruel conditions in which animals ranging from giant lizards which eat bat faeces to dogs ready to be eaten by humans are kept, cause viruses to leap beyond the animal-human boundary.  Only now is the Chinese Government attempting to ban these markets.  But China is not only to blame.  Similar markets exist throughout the Far East and where animals – alive or dead – are kept in unsanitary conditions, the world must work together to ensure their permanent closure.  The UK should take a lead in this.”