Brian May, Paul McCartney Raise Their Voices Against Animal Abuse As Coronavirus Infects Over 2 Million

by Debayan Paul

Legendary British rock band Queen’s lead guitarist, Brian May, slammed the meat industry for the ongoing crisis, which is upending life and disrupting the normal functioning of the world. Iconic singer-songwriter Paul McCartney slammed the Chinese wet markets – which sells freshly slaughtered meat – as ‘medieval.’ 

Brain May, who has been vegan from the beginning of this year, said he adopted this lifestyle as a decision. “(…) but now we’ve seen more of the effects of how eating animals has brought us to our knees as a species, I think it’s time to re-examine our world in a way that doesn’t abuse other species,” he said to NME. May added that from now onwards, he will be more vocal about veganism because, to him, “it is the way forward, in so many ways.”

The lead guitarist also stated if we want to look deeper into it, we must ponder on whether we should be eating animal flesh or not. Brian feels this coronavirus crisis will help the world re-evaluate its relationship with meat. 

Speaking about veganism, May said: “To me, it was an experiment, because for a long time I’d been an animal campaigner but grappled with the fact that I was still eating them occasionally.” He added, “I took up the Vegan Challenge in January, and I’ve been three months a vegan now.” 

The Pandemic Infects More than 2 Million Globally

Recent data shows 2,064,815 total globally confirmed cases as of April 16th, with death tolls touching 137,078. The US is the most affected with 3, 261, 621 cases followed by Italy and Spain, according to John Hopkins University COVID-19 data tracking. 

Brian May joins a host of other celebrities who has spoken about the merits of veganism in reducing human-wildlife contact that has been a fulcrum of several deadly diseases like SARS and MERS, to name a few. 

Just recently, Paul McCartney called off to end the Chinese wet markets that are being suspected of spreading the coronavirus to humans. “It seems like SARS, avian flu, all sorts of other stuff that has afflicted us… and what’s it for? For these quite medieval practices. They need to clean up their act. This may lead to [change]. If this doesn’t, I don’t know what will,” the singer-songwriter was quoted saying. 

The COVID-19 virus has been claimed to be zoonotic – one that spreads from animals – but the exact source of origin is still unclear. The Chinese wet markets in Wuhan are being said to be the epicenter of the animal to human contact.