Should We Be Afraid? Maybe

The Coronavirus which has killed over one thousand people in China and sickened thousands is a zoonotic disease. That means it jumped from animals to humans. Experts believe that it originated in bats, jumped to pangolins (a scaly mammal) and then to humans in a poorly regulated, wet marketplace, in Wuhan, China. In that marketplace, where there were dead and live animals, it was a place where viruses can spread.
The good news is that hopefully there will be a vaccine in the coming months and the strict measures the Chinese government has taken to stop the spread of the virus will work and the pandemic will stop.
But what frightens me is what if another zoonotic disease jumped from animals to humans and was deadly....for everyone....that's a very scary scenario, like a horror movie plot.
That could be the end.
Of course as Christians we have to live in hope. Hope should cast out fear.
But humankind is careless. We've been careless with creation. There is a lot of pride and greed in this world.
We need to respect the natural world and have greater understanding of the conditions that cause zoonotic diseases to thrive.
The unthinkable could happen. It's not that far fetched. I hope and pray it doesn't.
I try to be hopeful. I try to surrender my fears to God. But maybe even God can't save us from ourselves or our carelessness or greed.
NJA

UPDATE: Apparently experts now believe that the coronavirus originated in bats but then jumped not to snakes, as originally reported but to pangolins, a scaly mammal and then to humans. Pangolins are considered the world's most trafficked animals....sadly they are being hunted to extinction. Their keratin scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine.