What is a zoonotic disease?
Preparing For The Next Pandemic After COVID-19
B2 English listening practice · American English · Picked for people who know more
This pandemic-preparedness talk hands you a useful term and defines it on the spot: «the zoonotic disease, which is a fancy name for an animal disease transferred to a human». A zoonotic disease spreads from animals to people, and many of history’s worst outbreaks, from rabies to COVID-19, began exactly this way.
The word joins Greek zoon (“animal”) with the “-otic” ending, and you’ll hear “zoonosis” for the jump itself. The talk sets it beside smallpox, polio, Ebola, and AIDS to make its point: outbreaks recur. A handy, increasingly common word for anyone who follows the news on health.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸Global health bodies like the WHO and the CDC.
- ▸English news coverage of outbreaks like Ebola, COVID-19, and bird flu.
- ▸Public-health explainers and science channels on how disease spreads.
- ▸In everyday talk about where new viruses come from.