Environmental Issues and Future Zoonotic Diseases

Christian Puccio, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completed major in Biology Health Science

Over the past 2 years, we have lived through the most devastating pandemic that humanity has witnessed in over a century since the 1918 Spanish Flu. During this time, we have seen the incredible progress and speed at which medicine is being developed and provided to the public. The COVID-19 vaccines were available to the public less than a year after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was found in the United States. The pharmaceutical companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna used brand new technology in using messenger RNA to elicit an immune response in their vaccines.
The achievements in medicine that occurred during the last 2 years have saved countless lives and it is nothing short of being remarkable. However, even with this progress and growth in medicine, millions of lives were still lost. This gruesome fact is what made me decide the topic of my capstone project: Preventing Future Zoonotic Diseases and Pandemics by Correcting Environmental Issues.
Currently, the emphasis in most media has been primarily on post emergence pandemic control. However, as the pandemic seems to be coming to an end, it is evident that more proactive approaches in prohibiting zoonotic diseases from emerging in the future is of utmost importance. After performing ample research, it was apparent that the environmental issues we are currently faced with are a major factor in increasing the incidence of zoonotic diseases. With the help of my mentor, Dr. Esposito, I was able to produce a 32-page research paper on how environmental issues caused by human activity, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, unplanned urbanization, deforestation, wildlife trafficking, and anthropogenic factors, were contributing to the emergence and reemergence of zoonoses.
As I look back at my college career and all the courses I have taken as a biology major, I feel my capstone project was a perfect way to culminate much of what I learned throughout college into an informative and educational presentation that could potentially be used to save lives.