Bat Issues | Bat Flash | A Never-Before-Seen-Virus Has Been Detected in Myanmar’s Bats

URGENT: BAT FLASH  BATS NEED YOUR HELP!

What's Going On?
The July 11, 2018 issue of Smithsonian.com published an article hardly fit for a grocery store tabloid. The story titled, “A Never-Before-Seen-Virus Has Been Detected in Myanmar’s Bats.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/global-surveillance-program-identifies-never-seen-virus-myanmars-bats-180969598/ It implies that a pandemic can be avoided by finding a new virus and goes on to claim that tropical rain forests are "cesspools of viral diversity." The headline and rhetoric are exceptionally damaging coming from America’s leading institution of science education.
Read Merlin's response here. https://www.merlintuttle.org/2018/08/03/smithsonian-promotes-misleading-virus-hunter-claims/

What To Do
Our combined voices can make a difference. Choose any or all means of contact to reach out to the staff at Smithsonian.com and politely share your opinion in your own words. Editors do take notice. Remember, your response can be very simple such as, “I don’t appreciate speculation that creates needless fear of bats.” Editors just need to know you like or dislike an article in order for you to have impact. It’s numbers that count. Bats need all of you!

Facebook
Comment on the post https://www.facebook.com/smithsonianmagazine/posts/10155910234948253

share your thoughts in your own post and tag Smithsonian Magazine​ on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/smithsonianmagazine

Contact
Complete a Feedback form for Smithsonian. Be sure to include the article title and author. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/contact/feedback/

Email the author, Katherine J. Wu, via her website contact form. https://www.katherinejwu.com/contact/

Twitter
@SmithsonianMag https://twitter.com/SmithsonianMag
@KATHERINEJWU https://twitter.com/katherinejwu

THANKS
James. BatsRule.info

For previous Bat Flash - https://www.merlintuttle.org/category/bat-flash/