Paul McCartney Calls on China to Close Down “Medieval” Wet Markets

The former Beatle has a bone to pick.

In an appearance on the Howard Stern Show, McCartney called China’s wet markets “medieval” and “obscene” in the era of Covid-19.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if this is the only thing it seems like you can blame on those wet markets,” he told Stern. “It seems like SARS, avian flu, all sorts of other stuff that has afflicted us […] and what’s it for? For these quite medieval practices. They need to clean up their act. This may lead to [change]. If this doesn’t, I don’t know what will.”

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Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market was widely pointed to as a potential origin point of the outbreak, but the hypothesis is far from confirmed. That hasn’t stopped a flow of international outrage against China’s wet markets and regarding eating habits that the majority of the country doesn’t identify with.

“We’ve seen various forms of crisis before but nothing that’s affected everyone in the world at the same time,” McCartney said about the pandemic in general. “I must say, it’s scary. The thing for me is, I’m from the generation that had just come out of World War II, my mum and dad were in World War II, and the spirit that they showed was: we’ll get on with it, we’ll do whatever’s necessary, we’ll pull together and try to stay happy […] that spirit is kind of what they needed, and is what we need now. That’s what we’re seeing now, a lot of people are pulling together […] it’s inspiring.”

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McCartney is also an animal rights activist, and has been vegetarian since the ’70s.