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Beatles legend Paul McCartney has called for the Chinese Government to clean up wet markets, calling the practice of selling and eating live bats ‘medieval.’
Paul, who hails from South Liverpool and is a fervent animal rights activist, weighed in on the debate after the leading scientific arguments suggest the virus originated at a food market in Wuhan, China, before calling for such markets to be banned.
Speaking to Howard Stern on Sirius XM this week, Paul, 77 said: “They might as well be letting off atomic bombs because it’s affecting the whole world.
“Whoever is responsible for this is at war with the world and itself.”
Paul, who many consider acted as the main PR man for the Fab Four and refrained from public outbursts of emotion as much as possible in the 60s and 70s, didn’t pull any punches when it came to whether the Chinese government should be held to account over the wet markets.
He added: “I really hope that this will mean the Chinese government says, ‘We have really got to get super hygienic around here’.”
“Let’s face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats. They don’t need all the people dying.
“And what’s it for? All these medieval practices. They just need to clean up their act. This may lead to it. If this doesn’t, I don’t know what will.”
And when the conversation suggested that banning the markets would be a difficult thing to do for China, Paul said: “They did slavery forever too, but you have to change things at some point.
“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.”
The singer told Howard he is currently self isolating in his Sussex home away from his wife Nancy Shevell as she was in New York when the lockdown was put in place.
Paul also touched on his planned Glastonbury 2020 appearance that was due to take place later on in the year, but was sadly cancelled amid the pandemic.
He said: “What’s disappointing for me is the people who bought tickets, who were looking forward to this and thinking here’s something groovy to do in the summer, and suddenly the plug is pulled, and we can’t come around and play for them.
“It’s sad for us, too – we were looking forward to that.”