The outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic is endangering the health of all humans and requires the urgent attention and active response of all countries and all areas of society. Existing studies have shown that wild animals are one of the sources of high-risk virus infection affecting human health, and human activities have largely shaped the routes of virus transmission. To protect wildlife is to protect human health. We should follow the concept of One Health to make corresponding legislation, so as to better coordinate the relationship among human health, animal health and environmental health. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, China has taken many effective measures to prevent its spreading, including revision of the Wild Animal Conservation Law. All sectors of the Chinese society have issued a strong appeal to pursue One Health and even specific legislative proposals. Because the current Wild Animal Conservation Law fails to properly reflect the concept of One Health, which is the root cause of the imperfect design of the system and the key to the unsatisfactory effectiveness of the legal application. China's new Wild Animal Conservation Law is expected to make a large-scale and systematic revision, which should fully implement the concept of One Health.

Article impact statement: Laws play an important role in protecting wildlife; failure to enact sciencebased laws does the opposite.

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