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Today the upmarket online supermarket Ocado reports overwhelming orders for pasta and tins of baked beans. Yes, we are all stocking up for fear of having to hunker down for weeks, either

self-isolating or simply cowering from the threat of Covid-19. Meanwhile it is World Wildlife Day. My social media feeds are flooded with Attenborough-worthy videos of wild and free animals,

birds, fish and insects happily running, flying, swimming and buzzing all over the world. Solemn voice-overs remind me that we are driving wildlife to extinction a thousand times faster

than nature would on its own, that we depend on biodiversity for our health and wellbeing, that we all share the planet together. And yet the message that our rampant misuse of other

creatures, both farmed and wild, and their habitats which has brought us to the brink of a new pandemic, is not getting through to the people who need to hear it. We know the virus jumped

from captive bats (who are carriers but aren’t bothered by it) to humans who came into contact with them in markets where thousands of these animals, savagely captured and horribly confined,

are sold for food. The Chinese government has imposed a half-hearted, feeble ban on the use of wild animals for food — but “not for medicine, fur or research”. This isn’t just shutting the

stable door too late. It’s knocking giant loopholes in the door as well. I’m no expert on China, I admit, but there seems to be no government better at getting what it wants than the Chinese

regime. If the Chinese government really wanted people to respect wildlife better, I am sure it could use its potent machines of persuasion to make massive changes in public attitudes. Just

imagine if the Chinese government had decided long ago that it made long-term economic sense (as it does) to treasure, not plunder its incredible wealth of wildlife. Imagine if it had

decided to protect habitats, ban cruel dolphin shows, outlaw the capture of wild species for food AND medicine and ruthlessly close down the disgusting “wet markets”. A lot of innocent

people might still be alive instead of succumbing to Covid-19. China would have more wildlife and fabulous habitats to attract tourists, and we would not be biting our nails at the prospect

of economic gloom. Meanwhile another health crisis is just over the horizon, also directly the result of our treatment of animals. This crisis could undermine all the advances we have made

during my 60 years on this earth, in cancer treatment, in everyday surgery and in all aspects of daily health. If you say, “overuse of antibiotics” to most people, they think of GPs dishing

out prescriptions too readily. But your doctor is not the problem — the problem is in your bacon. International health agencies such as the World Health Organisation and the European

Medicines Agency believe that overuse of antibiotics in farming is contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance in some human infections. And this is getting worse. Billions of

farm animals and poultry are kept in conditions so bad that in nature, they would be dead. Antibiotics keep them alive just long enough for them to grow to a profitable slaughter weight.

Yes, that’s how farming works all over the world: we literally use antibiotics to avoid the trouble of providing pigs, poultry and even cattle with a reasonable quality of life before they

are slaughtered. I’m not pointing the finger at British farmers — they have reduced their antibiotic use. But around the world it is a different picture. Between 70-80 per cent of all

antibiotics used in the world are given to farm animals. Every day. Today is not just any old World Wildlife Day. It should be the day we wake up and join the dots. How we treat other

species, both wild and captive, is threatening our lives.