The underlying circumstances that made the explosive outbreak of today’s COVID-19 pandemic possible still exist. If we want to prevent another pandemic, it’s urgent we start eliminating those circumstances, right now. A good place to start would be by shutting down animal “wet markets” worldwide.

There is broad consensus that the present pandemic likely emerged from an animal wet market in Wuhan, China. Wet markets are place where wild and domestic animals, alive and dead, are bought and sold as food. They very commonly are uninspected, poorly regulated, noxiously unsanitary and appallingly cruel. They have repeatedly been identified as the key locations where newly emerging diseases are transmitted from infected animals to humans.

The…