The Biden administration published a report Tuesday on the state of climate change in the U.S. linking the phenomenon to increased pandemic risks.
The report, known as the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA 5), features a full section examining the relationship between climate change and pandemics like COVID-19. The report asserts that pandemics will become more likely and worse as the projected effects of climate change set in over time, the combined effects of which “[require] early collective action and systemic change” to avoid or mitigate.
“Climate-driven changes in ecosystems increase the risk of emerging infectious diseases by altering interactions among humans, pathogens and animals and changing social and biological susceptibility to infection,” and particularly heightens for “the risk of infection among people at the front lines of exposure, especially those with fewer resources,” the report states. (RELATED: ‘Absolutely’: Biden Spox Says President Stands By Statement That Climate Change Is ‘More Frightening’ Than Nuclear War)
Tune in as I deliver remarks on the Fifth National Climate Assessment and my Administration’s historic actions to address the climate crisis. https://t.co/aG0hiLxYHE
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 14, 2023
It further posits that more than 50% of identified pathogenic illnesses are made worse by climate change, especially those that originate in animals or vector-borne diseases. “Changes in climate alter the distribution, diversity and abundance of vectors and non-human hosts, as well as the host’s susceptibility to pathogens and pathogen replication. Climate changes can also speed the transmission of pathogens and promote the establishment of new diseases,” the report states.
While the NCA 5 purports to have several solutions to get ahead of the next pandemic, many key questions remain officially unanswered about the origins of the last one. The White House does not yet have an official position regarding whether COVID-19 originated due to a lab leak, but it continues to seek answers.
Notably, an experienced Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer recently alleged to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the CIA paid a group of six agents investigating COVID-19’s origins six-figure sums to change their positions away from suspecting a lab leak in Wuhan, China, according to a June letter to CIA Director William Burns signed by Republican Ohio Reps. Brad Wenstrup and Mike Turner.
“COVID-19 and climate change have common underlying challenges and solutions,” according to NCA 5, including “collective action among nations to minimize threats,” “bottom-up and top-down programming to build community resilience” and “solutions to address stark socioeconomic, racial, and gender disparities that increase the vulnerability of those who are facing discrimination or have fewer resources.”
Hurricanes, drought, wildfires, heat waves and air pollution all variously added to the transmission of COVID-19 and severity of cases, particularly among minorities and lower-income populations in many instances, according to NCA 5.
“Pandemics are caused by infectious diseases, viruses and bacteria,” Steve Milloy, senior legal fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation regarding the pandemic section of the report. “There’s no evidence that the slight warming we have seen over the last 150 years has anything to do with any of that… mosquitoes are not impacted by the average global temperature, that’s not how it works at all. It’s about hygiene and insecticides.”
The White House did not respond immediately to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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