The Nelson Institute Issue Brief summarizes and conveys up-to-date scholarship on key issues of environmental concern. The latest edition of the Nelson Institute Issue Brief focuses on the ways human health and the natural environment are deeply intertwined, and how the COVID-19 global pandemic reveals these connections. Specifically, this edition highlights research from across the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, with articles detailing the impact that reduced human activity during periods of quarantine had on wildlife and air pollution. The final entry details how diseases like COVID-19 have been transmitted from wildlife to humans, and how increased human activity amplifies the chances of transmission in the future.