It puts the reader in the place of the Elizabethan who has to pay fines for eating meat
The summary of this passage would be more clear if it included the detail that there was a dead virus living inside the monkey. This would make it seem far less random that there is a sudden mention of a monkey without context.
The central idea should also include the phrase "and spread throughout the human species" so that the idea of <em>why</em> a virus coming alive would be scary.
If youre taking about a book you can use "the reader"
