The ill memories of the ghastly COVID-19 pandemic still haunt humans across the globe, and in the meantime, the apprehension of another deadly pandemic has reared its ugly head. Reportedly, COVID-19 had claimed approximately 20 million lives worldwide, but now, if scientists are to be believed, the next pandemic can take a toll on double the number of lives.
The former Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, Kate Bingham, in a new book, has issued a warning about how the next pandemic has the potential to emerge from a vast pool of unknown viruses, and can claim as many lives as the Spanish Flu had claimed, that is, 50 million of them.
An excerpt from Bingham’s book, co-authored with vaccine expert, Tim Hames, published in the Daily Mail, highlights how an enhanced pandemic preparedness is required for the next one. The experts have outlined how thousands of different viruses have the potential to evolve into pandemic-causing dangers, by jumping between species, and undergoing mutations.
Bingham and Hames note, ‘So far, scientists are aware of 25 virus families, each of them comprising hundreds or thousands of different viruses, any of which could evolve to spread a pandemic.’
The World Heath Organization (WHO), too, recently cautioned people about how a pandemic in the future is imminent, which has been referred to as ‘Disease X’. The term was coined by the WHO in 2018, and includes diseases like Ebola, SARS, and Zika, among its potential sources.
