The author gave a few explanations as to why bats are so frequently the scapegoat for the spread of coronaviruses, but I'm curious- if not bats, then what? It also seems to me that blaming animals, especially animals such as bats or camels that are "exotic"- rather than a virus itself can lead to a lot of racism. For me, the question then becomes how to prevent the spread of these ideologies among the public- how do you educate against such a persuasive and seemingly harmless idea?
Is there any way to prevent SARS CoV-II from finding a new animal host? Also, if it does find a new host, how can we prevent another pandemic? How could that change with the type of animal potentially infected?