LAUSR

The real-life experience of the 2020 pandemic has shown us how totally unprepared we were to face such an event, albeit an event with several unique features. The inter-species jump by an animal virus to humans is, perhaps, one of its least unique characteristics as this has occurred several times in the past. The total absence of preexisting immunity in the human host was the worst possible scenario in the face of rapid worldwide virus dissemination through international travel making COVID-19 effectively unstoppable. Further, this pandemic overlies other epidemics of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, obesity and chronic respiratory diseases, supporting a novel proposal for the term “syndemic” [1]. But there is more: this virus is also spilling into animal populations such as mustelids which could become reservoirs of infection, thus potentially allowing the evolution of many host-adapted lineages [2]. This observation leads us to consider another term which unveils another unique feature: its panzootic nature [3]. Panzootic refers to “all animals” and should taxonomically include Homo sapiens. This concept, of a virus capable of infecting multiple animal species, provides a further perspective to this epochal event. Several animal viruses have jumped the species barrier to humans, with varying degrees of success. This evidence combined with the many interlocking aspects of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases, lies at the core of what we know as the One Health approach [4,5]. This approach has generated extensive literature on how infectious diseases should be managed with particular focus on areas where the human/animal/environmental domains overlap. Studies developed over decades have allowed the identification of hotspots and high-risk events of potential pathogen emergence. Generally, human invasion of segregated areas, the presence of live animal markets in large cities in combination with poor healthcare services and insufficient surveillance activities at the human-animal interface provides a fertile ground for pathogens to