The scientist leading Oxford University's push for a coronavirus vaccine has warned of an increasing risk of disease outbreaks spreading from animals to people.
Professor Sarah Gilbert said human activity is driving the rising threat, adding the risk is unlikely to diminish in the future as globalisation continues.
The World Health Organisation says around a billion cases of illness and millions of deaths occur every year from zoonoses, or zoonotic diseases.
Meanwhile, 60 per cent of emerging infectious diseases that are reported globally have jumped from animals to humans. "Greater population density, greater travel, deforestation - all of these things make it more likely that these outbreaks will happen and then something will spread,"
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