Washington Post: China’s rapid urbanization will make another pandemic more likely

Nick R. Smith reads between the lines of the new World Health Organization report on the coronavirus

How China’s expansive new era of urbanization threatens to undermine the foundations of rural lifeThe recent report from the World Health Organization on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic is largely inconclusive. The truth is, we may never get clear answers to what brought us covid-19. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to learn from the report, and though the authors prudently avoid definite conclusions, there is one thing we now know for sure: The speed and scale of Chinese urbanization played an important role in the pandemic. And the country’s continuing push for rapid urbanization makes another pandemic more likely.

Op-ed perspective in Washington Post.