Congress is already thinking about how to prevent the next pandemic. See how quickly Cory Booker has teamed up with Lindsey Graham to write a letter calling for a global ban on “wet markets.” The current pandemic is reputed to have originated in a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. So, having identified what they believe to be the root of the problem, these politicians want to eliminate it. In an era of political polarization, even modest bipartisan action is noteworthy — and cause for suspicion.
Booker and Graham could have benefited humanity by reaching across the aisle to do pretty much anything other than co-writing that letter. If they’d done just a little homework, they would have discovered that a wet market is any place that sells perishable goods like meat and produce — as opposed to a dry market where you can get appliances.