Animals likely started the pandemic. They'll likely keep it going, too.

A deer.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Since the pandemic hit, a number of countries have pursued a "zero COVID-19" strategy — like New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, and China. The idea is to do a hard lockdown to stop transmission entirely, so that controls can be mostly abandoned afterwards. As a temporary strategy to buy time until vaccines are available, that makes a good deal of sense. The American COVID death rate is 10 times that of Vietnam, 34 times that of Australia, and 384 times that of New Zealand.

But unfortunately, the coronavirus will almost certainly be with us for the foreseeable future — unlike smallpox, it will never be eradicated. One reason is animal reservoirs. The New York Times reports on a new study estimating that about 80 percent of the white-tailed deer in the state of Iowa tested positive for the coronavirus. It seems somehow a deer caught it, and the virus is so incredibly contagious it ripped through the whole population.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.