Maybe...

@SpikeTalon no - not maybe. Snake meat is commonly eaten in Asian countries. The original report did say that the disease was traced back to a market in China where snakes or snake meat was being sold for human consumption. That is how the corona virus jumped into the human population. I have not heard yet how the virus is being transmitted from human to human. I am guessing its not necessarily a blood born pathogen but probably transmitted the same way influenza and the common cold are - that being having direct contact with the virus via mucous membranes to hands from hands to objects and food, possibly kissing or hand to hand contact etc.

@SpikeTalon I have a funny and true story here: about 40 years ago I played golf every week with a married Japanese couple - Japanese natives and in USA on visas. He was a surgeon, she was a lab tech. We always walked and carried our clubs - never rode in carts. Anyhow one day the Dr. hit his ball into some heavy rough. I was helping him search for his ball when I heard him say something to his wife in Japanese that sounded happy. I looked over and he had a large blacksnake on the end of his golf club. He reached out and took hold of the snake with a large smile he asked me if it would be ok to put the snake in his golf bag for he and his wife to eat later. I laughed because I thought he was joking - he wasn't joking. I told him I didn't know of any law or rules prohibiting that and so he slid the live snake into a large enough pocket of his golf bag and onward we went with our golf game.
Next time I saw them I asked about the snake - they ate it. Said is was very good.

@iThink Okay, I was unaware that they eat snakes over in China. Looked it up and what I found confimed what you mentioned above.

I once worked with a guy who claimed to have eaten snakes before, he said it tastes just like chicken.

@SpikeTalon yes all over Asia - China, Japan, Vietnam, literally every Asian country, people eat snake. They love it. They eat things that sound absolutely disgusting to you and me. I'm sure you could do a google search and find out the kinds of things I'm talking about. Or you could ask guys who went to places like Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Philippines, Guam...when they were in the military (especially the Navy) about the things those people eat. Another funny story. Guy I knew was in the Navy during the Vietnam war. Told me about how his ship (was a destroyer) collided with a Junk - had about 70 people on it. The Junk was severely damaged and they had to "rescue" the people. Captain of the Destroyer was trying to do a good thing when I had the galley bring up ice cream for the Junk people to eat - they said they were hungry - anyhow, they were disgusted by the ice cream - would not touch it. Only other thing the Captain had on hand in large quantity was crackers. Soda Crackers. My friend told me that ate the hell out of the crackers. LOL
Same guy told me about something called Baluts - fertilized chicken or duck eggs buried in sand to rot for a few days. then dug up and eaten...nasty eh?

@iThink When Tony Zini was a Marine officer, serving as a advisor, attached to a South Vietnamese Marine unit, he awoke to much commotion around his hammock. He move his poncho from above himself and there was a large constrictor snake just above him. They tied the snake to a pole and carried it for the remainder of the patrol. Back with the rest of the company they dined on snake with rice.