Full title is <i>Bat cave solves mystery of deadly SARS virus — and suggests new outbreak could occur: Chinese scientists find all the genetic building blocks of SARS in a single population of horseshoe bats</i><p>Where does the article say <i>Why haven't we done something about the batcave where global pandemics start</i>? Where does it imply or insinuate that "all" or "many" global pandemics have started from one particular batcave? Nowhere.<p>Instead, we read: "In a remote cave in Yunnan province, virologists have identified a single population of horseshoe bats that harbours virus strains with all the genetic building blocks of the one that jumped to humans in 2002, killing almost 800 people around the world". The authors estimate that "The killer strain could easily have arisen from such a bat population", so it's still a guess. Do the authors suggest to wall up the cave? No. Rather: "the latest results suggest the risk is still present. “It reinforces the notion that we should not disturb wildlife habitats and never put wild animals into markets,” says Yuen. Respecting nature, he argues, “is the way to stay away from the harm of emerging infections”."<p>So the story here is that we have identified a batcave where all the genetic ingredients to the 2002 SARS outbreak have been found. That does not mean the outbreak did start from this cave. It also does not mean that doing "something about THE batcave where (somehow) (all) pandemics start" would change anything. There are hundreds of species of bats, and, like rodents and humans, their habitats are spread all over the globe with the exception of the arctic regions. Yes, they harbor high levels of potentially dangerous virus strains in their bodies, but so do rodents. Don't eat rats, don't eat bats.<p>Why haven't we done something about alarmist, misleading headlines on HN?