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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dogecoin jumped 20% on Monday after Twitter users noticed the token's Shiba Inu mascot on Twitter's website.</li><li>Elon Musk, who's regularly pumped the meme coin, also brushed off a lawsuit related to the token.</li></ul>Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency that counts Elon Musk <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-dogecoin-bitcoin-crypto-tweets-mars-wealth-2021-12">among its most famous supporters</a>, soared 20% on Monday after the token's Shiba Inu mascot replaced the bird logo on Twitter's website. Meanwhile, Musk brushed off a lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme, with lawyers for the exec asking a judge to throw out the $258 billion case. The price of Dogecoin surged to $.09 as of 2:30 pm ET, up about 19%. The jump occurred as Twitter users noticed Dogecoin's distinctive Shiba Inu logo had replaced the bird icon on Twitter's website, per <a href="https://decrypt.co/125299/dogecoin-surges-doge-replaces-bird-logo-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Decrypt's</a> report. The surge behind the token's price also comes a few days after Musk refuted claims from dogecoin investors alleging in a new lawsuit that Musk's well-documented affinity for the meme token was part of a "pyramid scheme" to support the cryptocurrency. Musk's lawyers filed a request on Friday to dismiss the $258 billion suit, calling the claims brought forward a "fanciful work of fiction." They added that Musk's tweets about dogecoin, which include statements like "<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1357244295091208193?lang=en">no highs, no lows, only Doge</a>," were merely "innocuous" and "silly" remarks from the tech mogul.When Insider reached out to Twitter for comment regarding the logo change and the lawsuit, Twitter responded with a poop emoji, which Musk previously said was the new <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-automatically-responds-to-press-emails-with-a-poop-emoji-2023-3">auto-response to any email</a> sent to Twitter's press team.Musk has regularly tweeted about dogecoin for years, and first promoted it to his Twitter followers in 2019, when he said that the meme token was his "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-elon-musk-love-affair-dogecoin-2022-7#its-unclear-how-much-dogecoin-musk-owns-personally-but-some-have-speculated-he-could-be-the-dogecoin-whale-who-famously-holds-over-36-billion-coins-6">fav cryptocurrency</a>." The coin's valued peaked around $0.74 in mid-2021, but has since spiked periodically, often on comments from Musk. Dogecoin's last big jump came late last year, with the crypto gaining around $10 billion in market value as Musk began his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">takeover of Twitter</a>.

Dogecoin soars 20% after the token's Shiba Inu mascot replaces Twitter's bird logo

A few weeks before flying to Lisbon for vacation earlier this year, I redownloaded Duolingo. I'd used the language-learning app off and on over the years to brush up on my high-school French, but life — and weak discipline, if we're being honest — kept me from making its lessons a consistent habit. Now I hoped to pick up just enough Portuguese to dodge being branded an "ugly American." I promised myself that this time would be different because now I had the magic ingredient for getting myself to follow through on just about anything: a deadline.As the weeks before my trip dissolved into days, I kept up my Duolingo streak, racking up badges and encouraging notifications from Duo, the brand's green owl mascot. Then came my flight — and with that, the end of my streak.It didn't take long for Duolingo's emails to shift in tone. One subject line read, "It's been three days…" The next day, it asked, "Have you already gotten sick of learning Portuguese?" The day after that: "It looks like you've learned how to say 'quitter' in Portuguese."I archived the unopened emails without a second thought. After all, I knew perfectly well what I'd signed up for: learning Portuguese from the biggest asshole on the App Store.Across the internet, nearly a decade's worth of posts, comments, and blogs lament Duolingo's brusque bedside manner, which one Redditor <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/gvn354/duolingo_attempts_to_emotionally_blackmail_me/">half-jokingly</a> described as an attempt at emotional blackmail to spur reengagement. The nagging goes beyond email subject lines and push notifications; inactive users might look down at their phones to find that the Duolingo app icon suddenly depicts a sadder and older version of the owl's face — or one that's melting into a carnivalesque nightmare. Parents have even <a target="_blank" href="https://jessicaelefante.substack.com/p/duolingo-is-guilt-tripping-my-kid?utm_source=profile&amp;utm_medium=reader2">complained</a> that the capricious owl is attacking their children's brains and making them <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/1ac2eu1/should_my_son_delete_duolingo/">cry</a>. Though it's widely accepted that Duolingo can be a real jerk, some have gone so far as to <a target="_blank" href="https://designbuddy.substack.com/p/monthly-issue-may-2024">suggest</a> the company's manipulative messaging is flat-out unethical.For Duolingo, though, the relentless nagging seems to be a boon to its bottom line. Following the first quarter of 2024, the company reported 54% year-over-year growth in daily active users (to over 31 million), 45% growth in revenue, and record profitability. Not too shabby for an app whose affect has been described as "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.socialsamosa.com/marketing-shorts/duolingo-unhinged-marketing-strategy-4125046">psychotic</a>," "<a target="_blank" href="https://digiday.com/marketing/how-duolingo-is-using-its-unhinged-content-with-duo-the-owl-to-make-people-laugh-on-tiktok/">unhinged</a>," and "<a target="_blank" href="https://steemit.com/duolingo/@koenraadt/duolingo-s-abusive-learning-methods-the-app-that-causes-mental-health-problems">abusive</a>" — attributes that, if anything, the company appears to be leaning into. Haters may hate Duolingo's scolding, but more often than not, the company's largely under-30 user base laps it up. Love him or loathe him, the owl's got rizz.It might be an overstatement to call tough love the secret sauce for engaging Gen Z customers. But marketing experts say it's part of the package for Zoomer-marketing magic."Younger age groups engaging with marketing are looking for a company that has a special, unique personality that's memorable and feels authentic," said Brian Honigman, a marketing consultant based in Philadelphia. Honigman said that where older adults might respond to corporatized brand messaging — think concise, assertive slogans such as "I'm lovin' it" and "Just do it" — younger adults and teens tend to seek out brands that appear to embody distinct values and interests and have a clear perspective on the world."They're looking for something that comes across more like a person," Honigman said. "Duolingo does a fantastic job of not coming across like many other brands."It might be more accurate to describe what marketers call "authenticity" as "consistency across platforms." No matter the product, marketers tend to agree that a brand's existing customers and potential leads notice when a distinct personality shines through. Regardless of whether people feel warmly toward Duolingo's sassy spokes-owl, they're likely to appreciate that the character holds true to its obnoxious persona beyond the app and user notifications. Throughout its occasional TV ads and regular dispatches on platforms such as YouTube, X, and especially TikTok — where Duolingo boasts more than 12.5 million followers — the smug little bird is uncannily itself. A recent <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo/video/7380068067579006251">post</a> on the company's TikTok, captioned "celebrating getting my blue check back," shows Duo twerking, in a purple thong, while being pelted with red roses. A few days earlier, when the pop singer and party-girl paragon Charli XCX announced the release of her new album, "Brat," on X, Duolingo's account <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/duolingo/status/1799115396462891323">reshared</a> the post, adding, "i can't believe u wrote an entire album about me."Duolingo's brand presence is also irreverently funny in a way that begs to be memed. During this year's Super Bowl, the company went viral for a <a target="_blank" href="https://blog.duolingo.com/super-bowl-commercial-2024/">five-second ad</a> featuring its owl mascot pooping out a miniature of its own face with the caption "Do your Duolingo." The company arranged for users in the US to receive a push notification the moment the commercial aired. "No buts, do a lesson now," it read.Though the app's reengagement notifications have trended toward bluntness, a Duolingo spokesperson told me the company began leaning into its owl's sassy online persona a few years after an "<a target="_blank" href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/evil-duolingo-owl">evil Duolingo owl</a>" meme went viral on Tumblr in 2017. "Since then, we've had numerous social-first marketing campaigns that embrace the meme," the spokesperson said. In 2021, the company released "The Unignorable Notification," a YouTube short in the style of a public-service announcement. It followed that in 2023 with a send-up of personal-injury-attorney TV ads: "Lawyer Fights Duolingo Owl for $2,700,000.""People love brands with personality," Matt Williams, a visiting clinical professor of marketing at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at William &amp; Mary, told me. "Too many brands are scared to step out and grab one, but the ones who do it well reap the benefits."Williams understands this point better than most. From 2013 to 2018, he was the CEO of The Martin Agency, the firm that came up with a cockney-accented gecko to promote the insurance company Geico, which has had a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1102496094/the-gecko-effect">transformative</a> effect on the way insurance companies sell themselves. "I can't tell you how many times, as CEO of the agency that created the Geico gecko, a CMO asked me, 'Can you do for us what you did for Geico?'" he said. "But the downside risk can be just as big. The same influencers that reward Duolingo or Geico when they get it right with an owl or a gecko will take down a brand that gets it wrong." When M&amp;M's transformed its green and brown "spokescandies" in 2022 from sassy characters with high heels to ones wearing sneakers and low heels, critics from all parts of the internet revolted. Conservative critics called it woke; 20-something TikTokers called it a needless crime of "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@themification/video/7055354130235247919">deyassification</a>."Williams views Duolingo's cheeky owl as a case study in brand personality done right. It struck gold with Gen Z and younger millennial language learners in particular. The company said in a blog post in 2022 that about 60% of the app's US language learners were under 30.Duolingo's spunkiness isn't just a marketing ploy; it also drives user engagement. Kristen Smirnov, an associate professor of marketing at Whittier College, told me that to keep people engaged, brands tap into their desire to avoid friction. It's part of the formula for keeping people hooked on free-to-play gaming apps, such as "Candy Crush," which make their money selling in-game add-ons and boosters."What those designers very deliberately do is they figure out exactly how many moves are likely to be needed in order to regularly solve a particular level," Smirnov said. "And then they offer the player a few less moves." When the player gets tantalizingly close to solving the level, they become willing to pay for the few extra moves needed to win.Duolingo similarly gamifies friction — not by rigging its challenges but by deploying its trusty sidekick to annoy users. "I am assuming that the company had to ask themselves, 'OK, how do we introduce friction that consumers want to avoid?'" Smirnov said. "So they created that incredibly obnoxious logo, the owl." Even in a gamified context, emotional friction, such as Duolingo's nagging, can backfire when it's applied over an extended period. Research suggests it's especially risky to deploy marketing campaigns that make people feel bad about themselves; a 2010 <a target="_blank" href="https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news-archive/13591.html">study</a> found that the use of guilt and shame in anti-drinking ads triggered a defensive response that actually made their target viewers likelier to drink more. If people feel as though they're constantly bumping up against reminders of their failure, they may decide they're no longer having fun and move on. "People kind of stop treating it like a habit, then they may find that they never open up that app again," Smirnov said, recalling her own disenchantment with Duolingo when she was flooded with notifications after breaking a 52-day German streak while sick.Despite the research, Duolingo insists its guilt-tripping notifications do the trick of enticing people to drop whatever they're doing to log on to the app. A spokesperson told <a target="_blank" href="https://debugger.medium.com/duolingo-needs-to-chill-8f1832745ca0">Debugger</a> in 2020 that "other options" for reengaging users were "between 5% and 8% less effective at getting learners to take a lesson."Still, not everyone loves it. When Duolingo's head of product, Cem Kansu, <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/cemkansu/status/1301267132009848832">posted</a> a thread in 2020 about the success of "the passive aggressive reminder," several unhappy Duolingo users chimed in. "Wow, shame and guilt are how you want to motivate people to learn? that is pretty shitty," one reply said.But in the grand scheme of marketing, how shitty is it really? Engaging with products and services means opening yourself up to companies' shameless appeals to keep you coming back. It's a dynamic baked into the unspoken contract a consumer tacitly signs when they give their money to a mattress company that promises to give them the best sleep of their life or buy a pair of jeans that evokes effortless French-girl style. Marketing works by appealing to a person's deepest hopes and insecurities, offering consumer goods as the direct gateway to their idealized future self.Manipulative? Sure. Unethical? Not necessarily.Mara Einstein, a marketing professor at Queens College and the author of the forthcoming book "Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults," told me that ethical lines get crossed when a brand attracts consumers under a false premise or doesn't let them disengage. She cited multilevel-marketing schemes as one example of a business model that routinely draws on both of these unethical tactics to drum up new business. Their approach often relies on bombarding customers with communication and then withholding delivery of the promised goods or services until the customer gives more of their time or money, or both."That doesn't happen with Duolingo," Einstein said. "Duolingo may nudge you, but you can always say, 'You know what? This isn't working for me.'" Users can always opt out. (I never did get back to those Portuguese lessons.)"Ultimately, they're making you feel bad about not finishing your Spanish lessons," said Honigman, the Philadelphia marketing consultant. "At the end of the day, that's not hurting the world."<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/kelli-maria-korducki">Kelli María Korducki</a> is a journalist whose work focuses on work, tech, and culture. She's based in New York City.

'Emotional blackmail': How Duolingo manipulates its 31 million users 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Laura Hancock and Karen Rayne, both PhDs, are sexuality educators. </li><li>They say talking to little kids helps families prepare for tougher topics during the teen years. </li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Laura Hancock and Karen Rayne. It has been edited for length and clarity.When you think about having "The Talk," you might picture your children as teens. But really, getting familiar with the birds, the bees, and bodies should start much, much earlier, said Laura Hancock and Karen Rayne, authors of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.copperfieldsbooks.com/book/9781433838439">"Sex Ed For the Stroller Set: How to have honest conversations with young children."</a>By talking about these topics early on, "you become the go-to person when the topics become more serious," Hancock said.<h2>Have conversations early and often</h2>Parents today want to handle sexuality better than previous generations, but they often don't know where to start, the authors say. Their advice? <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/what-college-students-wish-parents-knew-about-sex-camous-2023-10">Have conversations early</a> and often. Not only does this give you time to practice getting comfortable with frank conversations, but it also creates a family environment where open, sometimes awkward, talks are normalized.While that might sound easy, it's not."What we're asking parents to do, it's hard," Hancock said. "We're asking you to be uncomfortable and approach this topic proactively that gives you the jitters."That's where scripts can come in handy. Here, Rayne and Hancock —who are both mothers — share how other parents can respond to questions about bodies, reproduction, and sex from the 5-and-under crowd.<h2>Use the right terms for anatomy</h2>Teaching kids about anatomy educates them about<a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/parents-teach-sex-ed-consent-while-in-diapers-2020-1#if-you-can-teach-a-child-to-not-spread-germs-you-can-also-teach-them-about-physical-consent-1"> their bodies</a> and lays the foundation that will help them understand reproduction later on. Try saying:<ul><li>That's your penis.</li><li>That's your vulva.</li><li>It's important to wash your hands before putting them on your vulva or vagina.</li><li>The vagina is a stretchy tube that goes from the outside the genitals (the vulva) to the uterus, which is where a baby can grow.</li><li>The vagina is like a stretchy tube. The opening to the vagina is different from the urethra (where the pee comes out) or the anus (where the poop comes out), but it's in the same area.</li><li>People with a vulva and vagina usually have a uterus. They also usually have breasts to feed the baby milk after it is born.</li><li>About every month, I get a period. This is when blood flushes out of the body. It's very normal.</li></ul><h2>Don't get caught up on sex</h2>Often, parents are most uncomfortable talking about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/lgbtq-queer-sex-education-facts-2020-6">penile-vaginal intercourse</a>. If you feel that way, "take a step back from that. We should be talking about a lot of other things first," Rayne said.Here are three scripts you can use to introduce the essentials of reproduction.<ul><li>Some people have eggs. Some people have sperm. A baby is made when an egg from one person gets together with the sperm of another person. They start to form a baby inside a part of the body called the uterus.</li><li>To make a baby, you need four things: an egg, sperm, a uterus for the baby to grow in, and people to help take care of the baby after it's born.</li><li>An egg is so small that we can barely see it, and sperm are so small that we can only see them if we have a special tool called a microscope. When an egg and sperm get together, they can grow bigger and bigger until a baby is ready to be born.</li></ul><h2>Talk about your child's birth story</h2>Kids love to hear about their own <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/reproductive-health/birth-center">births</a>, so that's a great place to start talking about birth, Hancock and Rayne said. Tell your child their birth story from start to finish, discussing the relationship between or among the people who contributed to them coming into the world. Tell them whether they came out through the vagina, or were born via cesarean.Here are six scripts to continue the conversation about birth:<ul><li>A baby is usually born when it is squeezed out of the uterus through the vagina, which is really stretchy. Sometimes, for different reasons, the baby might need to be taken out by a doctor using surgery, where they make an incision in the abdomen above the pubic bone, then into the uterus and get it out that way. It's very safe.</li><li>When an egg and sperm first come together, they don't look like a baby. Here are some pictures of what a baby looks like as it grows in the uterus.</li><li>Before a baby is born, we sometimes call it a fetus.</li><li>After many, many months of waiting, the baby lets the uterus know that it is ready to come out. Then the uterus pushes the baby out through the vagina.</li><li>When you were born …</li></ul><h2>Eventually, you can share more detail</h2>Once you've had some practice, it's time to share the nuts and bolts in an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/gwyneth-paltrow-said-she-didnt-have-sex-talk-with-kids-2021-5">age-appropriate way</a>. Hancock and Rayne recommend bringing up intercourse when your child does or by the time they're 6. Here's how:<ul><li>Sperm comes out of the penis, and an egg is made deep inside in an organ called an ovary. Sometimes when adults want to, they do a thing called "having sex" or "making love" when the penis fits inside the vagina. It might sound a little strange, but it feels good to the grown-ups — and it's only something adults do.</li><li>When lots of little sperm come out of the penis and are waiting in the fallopian tube, sometimes an egg comes out of the ovary, and sometimes the egg lets in one of those sperm. Together, they start to grow into a baby.</li><li>There are different ways that an egg and sperm can get together. You know how eggs come from a person with a vagina, uterus, and ovaries, and sperm comes from a person with penis and scrotum and testicles? Well, one of the most common ways a baby is made is when a penis and vagina fit together. Two people can decide they want to do that together because it feels good. Then, if an egg is traveling from the ovaries and sperm travels from testicles, the egg and sperm can meet up. Does that make sense?</li><li>Not all babies are made that way. Sometimes, a doctor takes the sperm from one person and an egg from another person and then puts them in the uterus to grow. Sometimes, the sperm and the egg meet in other ways.</li><li>There are also other ways egg and sperm can get together. Do you want to talk about those?</li></ul>By having these conversations, you're showing your kids it's OK to talk about sexuality and reproduction. If the conversations make you blush, remember your family values and your desire to have an open relationship with your children as they grow."Keeping that long-term goal in mind is critical when we're asking parents to be uncomfortable now," Hancock said.

As sex educators, we know open conversations can help kids lead healthy lives. Here are 20 scripts that parents can use to handle awkward talks.  

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.superpedestrian.com/en/fleet">Superpedestrian</a></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/scooters">E-scooter companies</a> like Bird and Lime are struggling with broken and vandalized scooters.</li><li>A startup called Superpedestrian thinks it can fix this problem with onboard diagnostic computers and a more rugged design. </li><li>The company, which has yet to launch commercially, also wants to be a platform for other operators to rent scooters. </li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/scooters">E-scooters</a> for rent are a fairly simple business proposition: a company buys the vehicles from manufacturers such as Segway-Ninebot or even Razor and charges users for every ride.Then, under the cover of darkness, distributed independent contractors - known as juicers, in the case of Lime - fan out to collect bounties for scooters low on battery (or… juice, if you will) and make a small commission for charging them. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Becky Peterson / Business InsiderA broken scooter spotted in San Francisco.</div></div></div>These two simple transactions are at the heart of companies like Bird, Lime, Uber, Lyft, and others who have racked up massive valuations in the past year renting electric scooters around the world.But as winter digs in throughout the United States, a sobering reality is hitting scooter companies: the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lime-issues-second-scooter-recall-less-than-a-month-2018-11"> vehicles are crumbling</a> under the rigorous wear and tear of riding on city streets. In some cases, scooters are<a href="http://www.thedrive.com/tech/26036/investors-cool-as-birds-shared-scooters-hit-speedbumps"> lasting less than 30 days.</a>That's where a startup called Superpedestrian sees its niche.Founded in 2013, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup hopes to build a "platform" of sorts to power scooter rental startups. Its vehicles have an onboard computer to run diagnostic checks and report issues to a main hub, without requiring a rider to report the scooter as broken."The only solution to address this exploding demand for urban mobility is basically to truncate the space, to cut it off and make a smaller vehicle that's specialized for cities," CEO Assaf Biderman, who spend more than a decade in MIT's Senseable City Lab working on robotics, big data, and AI to improve urban live, said in a recent interview with Business Insider.Biderman's the first to admit that it's not a new idea. After all, bicycles and even scooters have been around for centuries, even before cars. But when scooters sit outside most of the day and see potentially dozens of riders on any number of terrains, the damage can add up quickly.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-electric-scooters-vandalized-pooped-on-2018-4">People are vandalizing the scooters taking over San Francisco with everything from stickers to poop</a>Superpedestrian's value comes from detecting that damage before it happens. Biderman explains that the company's "Core vehicle intelligence technology" consists of four computers that live inside the vehicle, be it a scooter or bicycle. Even non-vehicles such as vending machines can benefit from the company's diagnostic tech. They're constantly monitoring 100 things that could go wrong from battery level to wheel alignment or pressure,<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Superpedestrian</div></div></div>"It's designed to be totally agnostic because we realized that the landscape is going to shape up over a decade or two, not over months," said Biderman. "We don't know yet what will be the eventual modes that people will use."Biderman says the scooter Superpedestrian unveiled back in December can live for anywhere from nine to 18 months while holding a charge for three to seven days. Both of those measures would be far longer than what other firms have observed in operation and could be revolutionary for the industry financially. So far, Superpedestrian has yet to announce any partners using its platform, though Biderman admitted the company is "working with major ride-hailing operators and many other companies."We should see the vehicles deployed sometime this year, he said."As urban <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> is transformed, a host of new vehicle technologies will be needed," Biderman said. "from new types of micro-vehicles to further progress on zero-maintenance, to integration with autonomous driving, and many more. Superpedestrian is at the heart of all of this." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barbie-toy-car-honda-dirt-bike-engine-fisher-price-power-wheels-2019-1">Watch what happens when you put a 240cc Honda dirt bike engine in a toy Barbie car</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

An MIT researcher's startup claims it has technology that will revolutionize E-Scooters and save mobility companies money

Cnsphoto/ReutersChinese premier Li Keqiang, wearing a mask and protective suit, speaks to medical workers as he visits the Jinyintan hospital where patients of the new coronavirus are being treated in Wuhan on January 27, 2020.<ul class="summary-list"><li>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-virus-everything-we-know-deadly-2019-ncov-wuhan-spread-2020-1">coronavirus</a> that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed at least 170 people and infected more than 7,000.</li><li>Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases, meaning they <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-chinese-wet-market-photos-2020-1">jump from animals to humans</a>. Both this virus and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-wuhan-coronavirus-compared-to-sars-2020-1">SARS</a> likely originated in bats, then jumped to people.</li><li>According to experts, as people continue to trade wildlife, encroach on habitats, and interact with animals, epidemics like the current outbreak <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-coronavirus-spreads-japan-thailand-2020-1">will keep happening</a>. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>When Chinese authorities reported an outbreak of a new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, many public health experts had a similar thought: History was repeating itself.Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which spread in China 17 years ago, was also a coronavirus. These zoonotic diseases originate in animals before jumping to people. Experts haven't yet confirmed which species was the original host of the new coronavirus, but "there's an indication that it's a bat virus," Vincent Munster, a scientist at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, told Business Insider.SARS also came from bats, experts say, and these two outbreaks won't be isolated incidents. More zoonotic diseases are expected to come down the pike in the years ahead. "Infectious diseases will continue to emerge and re-emerge. I think it's part of the world we live in now," Eric Toner, a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Business Insider. "We're in an age of epidemics because of globalization, because of encroachment on wild environments."<h2>Many future outbreaks could follow this one </h2>Xiong Qi/Xinhua/APA medical worker attends to a patient in the intensive care unit at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, China, January 24, 2020.The new coronavirus has killed more than 170 people and infected more than 7,000 since December 31.In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/opinion/coronavirus-china.html?action=click&amp;module=Opinion&amp;pgtype=Homepage">an op-ed for The New York Times</a> on Monday, science writer David Quammen wrote that the wildlife trade in Asia, Africa, and the US - particularly the kind that happens at dense markets in which live and dead animals are sold in a small space - is partially responsible for the current epidemic.In the case of Wuhan, some experts think the coronavirus jumped from bats to snakes in the wild, then from snakes to people a wet market. The suspected market has since been shuttered, and Wuhan banned the sale of live animals.SARS and the H7N9 and H5N9 bird flus also originated in wet markets. Edward Wong/South China Morning Post/GettyCustomers choose meat in a Chinese wet market, January 22, 2016.In addition to the wildlife trade, global population growth also increases the risk that diseases will spill over from animals to humans. As more people encroach on ecological habitats in their quest for food and resources, that creates opportunities for interspecies virus jumps: "First from animal to human, then from human to human, sometimes on a pandemic scale," Quammen wrote."When you're done worrying about this outbreak, worry about the next one," he added.<h2>Wuhan was an ideal point for a coronavirus spillover</h2>More than <a href="https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/infectious-diseases-conditions/world-zoonoses-day-most-emerging-infectious-diseases-originate">75% of emerging diseases</a> originate in animals. In the last century, at least 10 infectious diseases jumped from animals to people. The 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic - also known as swine flu - started in pigs then killed nearly 300,000 people. People have caught bird flu strains via direct contact with infected poultry in China. The density of Wuhan and the presence of live-animal markets there put the city at especially high risk of a disease outbreak, experts say.Felix Wong/South China Morning Post/GettyA Chinese wet market.Wuhan is the most densely populated city in central China, with 11 million people tightly clustered within the city limits. Crowded conditions <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(10)70223-1/fulltext">increases the likelihood that people will transmit infectious diseases</a>, research from the University of Geneva has shown. Wuhan is also replete with wet markets."Poorly regulated live-animal markets mixed with illegal wildlife trade offer a unique opportunity for viruses to spill over from wildlife hosts into the human population," the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement last week.Teh Eng Koon/AFP/GettyA Chinese poultry seller waits for customers behind freshly slaughtered chickens on sale at a wet market in Beijing, July 3, 2007.Adrian Hyzler, chief medical officer at Healix International (which offers risk-management solutions for travelers), told Business Insider that pandemics "are more likely to originate in the Far East because of the close contact with live animals, the population density, the transport hubs, and the commercial spread now with so many flights available."The coronavirus outbreak isn't currently considered a pandemic, however. The World Health Organization (WHO) has so far not declared it a global public-health emergency either.<h2>The unique threat of bats</h2>Bats were the original hosts of Ebola, SARS, Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), and probably this coronavirus outbreak as well. They pass diseases to other species via their poop or saliva, and the unwitting intermediaries can transmit the virus to humans in the same way.Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/opinion/coronavirus-china.html?action=click&amp;module=Opinion&amp;pgtype=Homepage">told Quammen</a> that coronaviruses "are making the jump, repeatedly, from bats to humans."A coronavirus look like a tiny cog under a microscope. Its circular shell is peppered with spike-shaped proteins that helps it attach to a host's cells. If the spikes' shape doesn't fit receptors on a potential host's cells, the virus can't spillover. But when a coronavirus mutates, the shape of these proteins gets altered, and that sometimes allows the virus to dock in a new host.GettyA microscopic view of the SARS coronavirus.According to Munster, only specific coronavirus lineages, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/betacoronavirus">called betacoronaviruses</a>, can nest in humans' respiratory tracts. Bats, by contrast, harbor a significantly higher proportion of zoonotic viruses than other mammals, according to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28636590">a 2017 study</a>. They fly across large geographical ranges, transporting diseases as they go, which makes them an ideal host if you're a virus."You're talking about thousands and thousands of these viruses in bats," Munster said. De Agostini/GettyA greater horseshoe bat, a relative of the Rhinolophis sinicus bat species from China that was the original host of the SARS virus.Bart Haagmans, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, told Business Insider that "bats and birds are considered reservoir species for viruses with pandemic potential," since people lack immunity to the coronaviruses that hang out in their guts.A study published in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466186/">March</a> even predicted that bats could be the source of a new coronavirus outbreak in China."It is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China," the researchers wrote.That's because the majority of coronaviruses - those that affect humans and animals - can be found in China, and many bats "live near humans in China, potentially transmitting viruses to humans and livestock," the authors said.<h2>The world isn't prepared for the next pandemic</h2>Public-health experts have repeatedly warned that the world is not ready for a deadly pandemic."We've been raising the flag on these viruses for 15 years," Daszak <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/opinion/coronavirus-china.html?action=click&amp;module=Opinion&amp;pgtype=Homepage">told Quammen</a>.REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiPassengers wearing masks to prevent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) walk past a thermal imaging camera at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, June 2, 2015.Bill Gates even wrote in 2017 that he considers a deadly pandemic to be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-op-ed-bio-terrorism-epidemic-world-threat-2017-2">one of the world's three biggest threats</a>, next to climate change and nuclear war."In the case of biological threats, that sense of urgency is lacking," Gates said <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warns-the-next-pandemic-disease-is-coming-2018-4">in a presentation</a> the following year. "The world needs to prepare for pandemics in the same serious way it prepares for war."Before SARS emerged, Toner said, a colleague of his at Johns Hopkins warned that next pandemic might be a coronavirus. Then SARS appeared, proving him right."Ever since that time, we've been concerned about the potential of coronaviruses," Toner said. "And that got reinforced by MERS." There's no cure for the new coronavirus, SARS, or MERS."There is no recognized therapeutic against coronaviruses," Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/coronavirus-cases-approach-3000-death-toll-jumps-above-80-everything-we-know/">said on Wednesday</a>. He added that the best thing hospitals can do to is "give adequate support of care to patients, particularly in terms of respiratory support and multi-organ support." ReutersA nurse fills a syringe with a vaccine before administering an injection at a children's clinic in Kiev, Ukraine.Because the Wuhan virus is new, experts have not had time to develop a vaccine.Several companies, including Moderna, Novavax, and Inovio, have announced <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-long-to-make-vaccine-for-wuhan-china-coronavirus-timeline-2020-1">preliminary vaccine-development plans</a>. But getting a vaccine to market has historically been an arduous, multi-year process (the Ebola vaccine took 20 years). None of the companies have provided expected timelines.SARS was eventually contained without a vaccine. But streamlining the development of vaccines, Toner said, "would be a game changer.""The thing that would make the most difference in the future is being able to very significantly shorten the amount of time it takes from the emergence of a new disease to a vaccine or other countermeasure being available," he said.Read more about the Wuhan coronavirus:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-virus-everything-we-know-deadly-2019-ncov-wuhan-spread-2020-1">The Wuhan coronavirus has killed 170 people and infected more than 7,000. Here's everything we know about the outbreak.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientist-simulated-coronavirus-pandemic-deaths-2020-1">Health experts issued an ominous warning about a coronavirus pandemic 3 months ago. The virus in their simulation could kill 65 million people.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-officials-quarantine-entire-city-2020-1">Wuhan, China, and at least 15 other cities have been quarantined as China attempts to halt the spread of the coronavirus. That's about 50 million people on lockdown.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-coronavirus-wuhan-2020-1">The Wuhan coronavirus has spread to at least 18 countries. Here's how to protect yourself while traveling.</a></li></ul><a href="/intelligence/digital-health?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_subscription&amp;itm_content=health&amp;itm_campaign=digital-health"></a>Featured Digital Health Articles: - <a href="/telehealth-industry-explained">Telehealth Industry: Benefits, Services &amp; Examples</a> - <a href="/value-based-care-pay-for-performance-healthcare-model">Value-Based Care Model: Pay-for-Performance Healthcare</a> - <a href="/senior-care-market-trends">Senior Care &amp; Assisted Living Market Trends</a> - <a href="/wearable-technology-healthcare-medical-devices">Smart Medical Devices: Wearable Tech in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/artificial-intelligence-healthcare">AI in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/remote-patient-monitoring-industry-explained">Remote Patient Monitoring Industry: Devices &amp; Market Trends</a>

A health-security expert says we're in an 'age of epidemics.' We can expect a future outbreak worse than the Wuhan coronavirus.

Emily Wang/APHealth officials in hazmat suits check body temperatures of passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, on January 22, 2020, at the airport in Beijing.<ul class="summary-list"><li>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-virus-everything-we-know-deadly-2019-ncov-wuhan-spread-2020-1">coronavirus</a> that originated in Wuhan, China, has killed 25 people and infected more than 830.</li><li>The coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, meaning it jumps from animals to humans.</li><li>SARS, a coronavirus that killed 774 people in the early 2000s, jumped from bats to civets to people.</li><li>The Wuhan coronavirus is also thought to have originated bats, which may have passed the disease to snakes, which then passed it to humans.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-virus-everything-we-know-deadly-2019-ncov-wuhan-spread-2020-1">coronavirus spreading in China</a> and the SARS outbreak of 2003 have two things in common: Both are from the coronavirus family, and both were passed from animals to humans in a wet market.Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases, meaning they spread to people from animals. Because wet markets put people and live and dead animals - dogs, chickens, pigs, snakes, civets, and more - in close contact, it can be easy for a virus to make an inter-species jump."Poorly regulated, live-animal markets mixed with illegal wildlife trade offer a unique opportunity for viruses to spill over from wildlife hosts into the human population," the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement on Thursday.In the case of SARS, and probably this coronavirus outbreak too, bats were the original hosts. They then infected other animals via their poop or saliva, and the unwitting intermediaries transmitted the virus to humans."Bats and birds are considered reservoir species for viruses with pandemic potential," Bart Haagmans, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, told Business Insider.In the last 45 years, at least three other pandemics (besides SARS) have been traced back to bats. The creatures were the original source of Ebola, which has killed 13,500 people in multiple outbreaks since 1976; Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which can be found in 28 countries; and the Nipah virus, which has a 78% fatality rate.<h2>The coronavirus might have jumped from bats to snakes to people</h2>De Agostini/GettyA greater horseshoe bat, a relative of the Rhinolophis sinicus bat species from China that was the origin of the SARS virus.Not all coronaviruses are deadly - the ones endemic to humans, like the common cold, are <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2759815?guestAccessKey=da12c4d9-bed5-4c36-88cf-4db717115947&amp;utm_source=For_The_Media&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=ftm_links&amp;utm_content=tfl&amp;utm_term=012320">often considered inconsequential</a>. The coronaviruses that pose a pandemic risk, however, are those that hang out in animals."Because these viruses have not been circulating in humans before, specific immunity to these viruses is absent in humans," Haagmans said.The coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan has so far killed 25 people and infected more than 830. Experts haven't yet confirmed the animal species that enabled it to spread to people, but they have some guesses. Scientists in China compared the genetic code of the Wuhan coronavirus to other coronaviruses and found it to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/snakes-could-be-the-original-source-of-the-new-coronavirus-outbreak-in-china-130364">most similar to two bat coronavirus samples</a>."There's an indication that it's a bat virus," Vincent Munster, a scientist at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, told Business Insider.According to a group of scientists who edit the Journal of Medical Virology, the intermediary species in this case could be the Chinese cobra.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cobra#/media/File:Naja_atra_(03).jpg">Thomas Brown</a>A Chinese cobra with its hood spread.That's because <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jmv.25682">further genetic analysis</a> showed that the genetic building blocks of the Wuhan coronavirus closely resemble that of snakes. So the researchers think a population of bats could have infected snakes, which passed the virus to humans as they were being sold at the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan.But the only way to be sure about where the virus came from is to take DNA samples from animals sold at that market and from wild snakes and bats in the area. <h2>Why bats pose such a threat</h2>Bats harbor a significantly higher proportion of zoonotic viruses than other mammals, according to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28636590">a 2017 study</a>. Experts think that's because bats can fly across large geographical ranges, transporting diseases as they go. That makes them an ideal host.ReutersA nurse wearing protective gear walks outside a SARS clinic in Toronto, Canada.Bats pass along viruses in their poop: If they drop feces onto a piece of fruit that a different animal then eats, the creature can become a carrier."We know a fair amount of viruses on the World Health Organization's Blueprint list of priority diseases have either a direct or indirect link with bats," Munster said. (<a href="https://globalbiodefense.com/2018/02/12/who-updates-blueprint-list-of-priority-diseases/">The list</a> includes SARS and MERS.)In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466186/">March 2019</a>, a study even predicted that bats could be the source of a new coronavirus outbreak in China."It is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China," the researchers wrote. That's because the majority of coronaviruses - both those that circulate in humans and in animals - can be found in China. Plus, the study authors said, "most of the bat hosts of these CoVs [coronaviruses] live near humans in China, potentially transmitting viruses to humans and livestock."AHMAD YUSNI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD YUSNI/AFP via Getty ImagesA doctor checks equipment at a SARS screening room at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia in 2003.The bat population from which SARS originated, for example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466186/">lived in a cave</a> just over 1 kilometer away from the nearest village. Similarly, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1006698">a 2017 study</a> warned that "the risk of spillover into people and emergence of a disease similar to SARS is possible." The authors identified at least 300 separate strains of coronaviruses still circulating in bats. <h2>How SARS, MERS, and Ebola jumped from bats to people</h2>Here are five viruses that likely came from bats, and how the outbreaks compare.Researchers traced SARS to a population of <a href="http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/bats/China%20bats/rhinolophussinicus.htm">horseshoe bats</a> in China's Yunnan province. Humans caught it from weasel-like mammals called masked palm civets at a wet market in Guangdong.Between 2002 and 2003, SARS killed 774 people across 29 countries and infected more than 8,000. Patients experienced fevers, headaches, and a type of deadly pneumonia that could cause respiratory failure.Oleksandr Rupeta/NurPhoto/GettyAn Asian palm civet in a cage at Kopi luwak farm and plantation in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, on November 20, 2018.MERS, similarly, passed from bats to dromedary camels in the Middle East. That coronavirus circulated in the camel population undetected for decades before jumping to humans in 2012. So far, 858 people have died in 28 countries from the illness, which comes with fever, cough, and shortness of breath.In southeast Asia, meanwhile, fruit bats were the original hosts of the deadly Nipah virus, which emerged in Malaysia in 1998, then again in India in 2001. The bats passed it to farmed pigs, which gave it to people. Patients experienced headaches and vomiting; many slipped into a coma and died.Fruit bats in Africa have played a major role in Ebola outbreaks since 1976. The worst Ebola outbreak in history, however, came from a population of <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/bat-species-may-be-source-ebola-epidemic-killed-more-11000-people-west-africa">long-fingered bats</a>. More than 11,000 people were killed between 2013 and 2016.<h2>How to prevent zoonotic diseases from spilling over into people</h2>At wet markets, the close proximity of shoppers to stall vendors and live and dead animals creates a prime breeding ground for zoonotic diseases.On Wednesday, authorities in Wuhan banned the trade of live animals at these markets. Officials closed the seafood market where the coronavirus outbreak is thought to have started on January 1. Experts support this type of intervention to help prevent the spread of viruses."Governments must recognize the global public-health threats of zoonotic diseases," Christian Walzer, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's health program, said in a statement. "It is time to close live-animal markets that trade in wildlife, strengthen efforts to combat trafficking of wild animals, and work to change dangerous wildlife-consumption behaviors, especially in cities."Dickson Lee/South China Morning Post/GettyA chicken vendor sleeps on top of chicken cages at Hau Wong road wet market in Kowloon City, China, January 31, 2004.But according to Eric Toner, a senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University, more animal-to-human disease outbreaks are likely to arise, even without wet markets. "I thought for a long time that the most likely virus that might cause a new pandemic would be a coronavirus," Toner told Business Insider. "We're in an age of epidemics because of globalization, because of encroachment on wild environments."The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak isn't considered a pandemic, however. The World Health Organization has so far not declared it a global public-health emergency, since China has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-officials-quarantine-entire-city-2020-1">quarantined Wuhan</a> and other nearby cities to stop the virus' spread.Aria Bendix contributed reporting to this story.<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more about the Wuhan virus:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-virus-everything-we-know-deadly-2019-ncov-wuhan-spread-2020-1">Everything we know about the deadly Wuhan virus sweeping across China</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientist-simulated-coronavirus-pandemic-deaths-2020-1">Health experts issued an ominous warning about a coronavirus pandemic 3 months ago. Their simulation showed it could kill 65 million people.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-wuhan-virus-new-year-travels-2020-1">The spread of China's mysterious fatal Wuhan virus is poised to get worse as the Chinese New Year travel rush begins</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-officials-quarantine-entire-city-2020-1">Wuhan, China, and 5 other cities have been quarantined as China attempts to halt the spread of the coronavirus. That's about 23 million people on lockdown.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-coronavirus-wuhan-2020-1">The Wuhan coronavirus has spread to at least 8 countries. Here's how to protect yourself while traveling.</a></li></ul><a href="/intelligence/digital-health?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_subscription&amp;itm_content=health&amp;itm_campaign=digital-health"></a>Featured Digital Health Articles: - <a href="/telehealth-industry-explained">Telehealth Industry: Benefits, Services &amp; Examples</a> - <a href="/value-based-care-pay-for-performance-healthcare-model">Value-Based Care Model: Pay-for-Performance Healthcare</a> - <a href="/senior-care-market-trends">Senior Care &amp; Assisted Living Market Trends</a> - <a href="/wearable-technology-healthcare-medical-devices">Smart Medical Devices: Wearable Tech in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/artificial-intelligence-healthcare">AI in Healthcare</a> - <a href="/remote-patient-monitoring-industry-explained">Remote Patient Monitoring Industry: Devices &amp; Market Trends</a>

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Experts think the Wuhan coronavirus jumped from bats to snakes to people. Bats have been the source of at least 4 pandemics.

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