It was a squeak.
It’s been over 24 hours since then, and I still haven’t laid eyes on a mouse.
What I have done, however, is spiral down a Google rabbit hole.
I went from “Was that just noise from my fridge?”
to “Could city mice have COVID-19?
You might say my stress is human nature.
We often think of urban pests as disease super-spreaders, shuffling deadly, alien microbes toward our lungs.
And it’s a worry that transcends mere paranoia.
As such, some experts even believe thenext pandemic might begin in a city teeming with urban animals.
As it turns out, we have a lot of research pointing toward that idea because of human bias.
It’s probably because we humansfeellike they’re the culprits.
But what if we’remaking themthe culprits?
I, for one, am still very worried there’s a mouse watching me as I write this.
As an example, that could include studying how city living could shape the prevalence and transmission of disease.
