Efforts to assess zoonotic risk often use trait-based analyses to identify which viral and reservoir host groups are most likely to source zoonoses, but have not fully addressed how and why the impacts of zoonotic viruses vary in terms of disease severity, capacity to spread within human populations, or total human mortality. We show that, while viruses transmitted by bats are more virulent to humans than average, viruses from close relatives (e.g., primates) are more transmissibile. Importantly, a disproportionately high human death burden is not associated with any animal reservoir, including bats.
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