Paul McCartney calls on China to ban ‘medieval’ wet markets after coronavirus outbreak, says ‘They might as well be letting off atomic bombs’
- Chinese markets selling fresh vegetables and meat are under attack because some also sell wild animals for meat that are often kept in unhygienic conditions
- The former Beatle suggests that celebrities speak out in support of closing them
Paul McCartney has called on China to close the country’s wet markets, linking them to “medieval practices” that have the same effect on the world as “letting off atomic bombs”.
The former Beatle called US radio host Howard Stern this week from Sussex, England, to give an update on his well-being during the coronavirus pandemic.
McCartney explained that he was “locked down” with his daughter Mary and her family, saying “the only bad” thing about being quarantined there was that his wife, Nancy, was in New York.
“Can you believe what’s going on? Did you ever think in your lifetime you’d see something like this?” Stern asked McCartney. “It’s so crazy,” McCartney said. “We’ve seen various forms of crisis before, but nothing that’s affecting everyone in the world at the same time. It’s scary.”
The two discussed the wet markets in China that sell fresh vegetables, meat and fish, which some have blamed for the global health crisis.
“I really hope that this will mean that the Chinese government will say, ‘OK, guys, we have really got to get super hygienic around here’. Let’s face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats,” said McCartney, a long-time animal-rights activist. (Most wet markets in China do not sell wild animals like bats, though some, like the market in Wuhan linked to the coronavirus outbreak, have wild animal sections).