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PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, always finds a way to insert itself into the news cycle. The animal activists, who rub a lot of people as self-righteous, are now getting involved in the coronavirus pandemic but it isn’t going as planned.
The activist organization decided to put up a billboard reading “Tofu never caused a pandemic”, referencing the belief that COVID-19 began at a wet market in Wuhan, China.
It is there way of telling people to stay away from eating animals and touting a vegan diet as a “lifesaving” solution.
PETA defended its billboard in a statement to FOX News, according to the New York Post.
“The best thing we can do for animals, the planet, our health and our communities is to go vegan and PETA plans to get this lifesaving message out to as many other cities as we can,” a spokesperson for PETA said in a statement.
Despite their best efforts, people weren’t having what PETA was selling.
“Wow, using the feared pandemic to use as a way to shove your propaganda on us. This makes me sick that you are taking this pandemic as a chess piece, this pandemic is killing people, overwhelm doctors even having people fresh out of med school dying,” one Twitter user wrote. “People are trying to live and all you guys do are having protests, fear mongering, and making you look superior because you don’t eat meat. Eating a vegetarian lifestyle doesn’t make you better than anyone. Lower your ego my dudes.”
Another added: “imagine legit using a global pandemic to push your incredibly clouded and hypocritical views, this is the worst time to be doing this, ya’ll make me [sick].”
The coronavirus mainly comes from animals and a majority of those who were infected early either worked at or frequently visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, according to The Guardian. The virus is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The Wuhan coronavirus is transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission.” That means an infected person can pass the virus by sneezing or coughing on another person as well as by direct contact.
While a majority of the cases have been detected in the United States and China — with more than 95,000 deaths in the United States — it has now reached many countries around the world. It has also been confirmed in Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and many other eastern countries.
