Thomas Smith in The Daily Bruin — Campus Queries: What environmental factors are linked to the coronavirus pandemic?

Wildlife markets are also a hotbed for transmission since wild animals from all around the world are put in small cages in close proximity to each other, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Thomas Smith said. Animals defecate on each other and are often slaughtered next to each other, creating optimal conditions for the transfer of the virus from one animal to another, he said.