There are some conspiracy theories that propose that Covid-19 was made in a laboratory by China that either accidentally or on purpose released in Wuhan. Whether that is true or not, the conditions for this particular Virus to mutate and jump to humans exist in the Wuhan Wet Markets. So in either case, the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 pandemic is caused by human activity; Either in a lab, or by people capturing and trafficking live animals in awful conditions, packing them close together where they are more likely to get sick and pass sickness to near by captive animals as it has in the past with other infectious diseases we now have to deal with.
This practice of animal abuse is common for individual and companies that sell animal products particularly for eating. Factory farms around the world do this systematically at a mass scale.
Many viruses would simply not exist if we didn't have atrocious animal agriculture conditions. We may not always know for sure how a specific infectious disease is formed, but according to the CDC:
Zoonotic diseases are very common, both in the United States and around the world. Scientists estimate that more than 6 out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals, and 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.
CDC on Zoonotic Diseases
The driver of these high numbers is a common habit of buying and eating factory farm meat. This places the responsibility on the consumer, you. Either you are buying these products or you are not. That determines future infectious diseases. When you buy meat, you are voting with you money for more pandemics in the future to make people sick.
I can accept that SARS-CoV-2 is more complicated and potentially more nefarious that is currently known. I know governments lie and corporations fund bad science to confuse the narrative. So I accept there is a possibility that an evil laboratory took the bat virus, recombined it with a pangolin virus and unleashed it on the world with unknown motives. But even if they did that, the conditions for creating infectious diseases still exist in the wuhan market, in wet farms and in factory farms here in America. These are funded by consumer spending, deregulation and dietary choices. This pandemic points at a problem we all have our hands in: eating meat from factory farms and wet markets has long term consequences.
These infectious diseases are only able to evolve in an aggressive and accelerated manner due to the conditions that factory farms create in-order to lower the cost of edible animal flesh. We will continue to see new viruses and super bacteria develop as long as people continue to buy meat from these places.
It makes sense to abstain from eating meat during a pandemic caused by eating meat. Otherwise if a person complains about the current pandemic situation while actively buying and eating products that cause infectious disease to mutate and spread, they are contributing to the problem. This is a time when we can admit that eating low cost animal flesh from factory farms and wet markets is a serious problem that effect everyone on Earth.
Sources:
Washington Post: Meat is not essential. Why are we killing for it?
The next pandemic is already coming, unless humans change how we interact with wildlife, scientists say
UK independent: Coronavirus: Industrial animal farming has caused most new infectious diseases and risks more pandemics, experts warn
