THE world is not prepared for a new, devastating pandemic and it could be much worse than Covid, warns the WHO’s top doctor.
The chilling message came as a new “Disease X” could soon rip through the Earth because people haven’t learnt crucial lessons from past pandemics and that civilisation will “pay dearly”.
The WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai about the potential fate of the world if another disease was to take over.
He labelled humanity “unprepared” for the next pandemic and said we haven’t learned the correct lessons from the brutal effects of Covid.
Ghebreyesus said: “As things stand, the world remains unprepared for the next Disease X, and the next pandemic.
“If it struck tomorrow, we would face many of the same problems we faced with COVID-19.
“The painful lessons we learned are in danger of being forgotten as attention turns to the many other crises confronting our world. But if we fail to learn those lessons, we will pay dearly next time.”
The haunting question of how far away the next global pandemic is was clearly answered by Ghebreyesus with him saying: “History teaches us that the next pandemic is a matter of when not if.”
He added a new Disease X “may be caused by an influenza virus, or a new coronavirus, or it may be caused by a new pathogen we don’t even know about yet”.
Ghebreyesus said: “COVID-19 was a Disease X – a new pathogen causing a new disease.”
“But there will be another Disease X, or a Disease Y or a Disease Z.”
The deadly and mysterious disease that could spark the next pandemic has already been noted by WHO.
They warned the hypothetical pathogen could kill 20 times more people than the Covid pandemic did.
The term represents any disease that experts is aware is coming and can make appropriate preparations for but something they have no real idea about.
Often used as a placeholder until the name of the disease has been coined, “Disease X“, is often a sign of a potentially fatal disease if the experts can’t quickly understand more about it and how to contain it.
The World Health Organisation describes it as: “Disease X is used to indicate an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious international epidemic.”
Disease X represents a hypothetical, currently unknown pathogen and was added to the WHO’s list of nine priority diseases recently.
The WHO ranks Disease X alongside Covid, Ebola, Zika virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
Covid was described as a “Disease X” when it was first encroaching onto the world.
Covid was one of the most deadly diseases to infect the world’s population when it took over a few years ago.
According to Worldometers, almost seven million people have died of Covid so far from the outbreak as of February 13, 2024.
In the UK, just under 227,000 people died with Covid-19 listed as one of the causes on their death certificate – including those who had not been tested for the virus prior to their death.
The most deaths reported on a single day was on 19 January 2021, when 1,490 people died.
