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Comment by ptah | Hacker News Reader

i thought humans are just another animal. why the surprise about diseases jumping from other animals to humans

There’s no surprise, zoonotic viruses are well known. That said, viruses are usually highly adapted to a specific host. Jumping host species isn’t trivial, and the mechanisms for how this happens are worth exploring.

But usually zoonotic diseases are especially deadly since killing the host is not in a parasites best interest but new diseases haven't worked out an equilibrium with the victim species yet.

https://aeon.co/essays/when-bacteria-kill-us-it-s-more-accid...

The bulk of our diseases are zoonotic in nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis

Has the figure at 61%.

Sure, but here is a key line from the Wikipedia article you reference: "Most human diseases originated in other animals; however, only diseases that routinely involve non-human to human transmission, such as rabies, are considered direct zoonosis"

You aren't going to catch the current coronavirus from your dog.

True. But you could catch Rabies.

The word "animal" is often used to mean "non-human animal." Context is key. I bet your locality has an Animal Control department, and you understand from context that it referes to non-human animals.

Jumping species tends to be a rare event with regard to diseases. But it is an important event, hence the article.

Where are you seeing surprise?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com