Less than two years ago Bill Gates warned: we must prepare for another pandemic. He did so at an event - in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the World Health Organization (WHO) - that took place at the Annual Grand Challenges Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on October 23, 2022 and which was known as 'Catastrophic Contagion, a theoretical exercise on pandemics'.
But the sirens are getting louder and louder. On February 12, during the World Government Summit in Dubai, The president of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, insisted again that the world must prepare to face another global health crisis similar to the one generated by the arrival of covid-19 in 2020.
Adhanom Ghebreyesus maintained that six years ago he warned at that same summit that the world was not prepared for a pandemic and that less than two years later, in December 2019, the emergency occurred due to the arrival of covid-19.
"Although some progress has been made, like improvements in surveillance, the Pandemic Fund, building capacities in vaccine production and the periodic review we have started, still, the world is not prepared for a pandemic," said Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the message he delivered before the summit .
In that sense, the president of the WHO emphasized that there will be a next time. "History teaches us that the next pandemic is a question of when, not if, it will happen ," he said.
"It 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 – what we call Disease X. And 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." Adhanom Ghebreyesus added.
"'Disease X' represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic"
Adhanom Ghebreyesus's warning adds to several he has issued in recent weeks. In January, during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, he stressed that governments should prepare for the arrival of another global health crisis. Additionally, the forum held a debate to address "disease X."
Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown as causing human disease.
"The time to prepare for the next pandemic is now, not when it arrives," said Adhanom Ghebreyesus on his X account after participating in the panel of experts who addressed the importance of preparing to face "disease AstraZeneca and Nisia Trindade Lima, Minister of Health of Brazil.
The time to prepare for the next pandemic is now, not when it arrives.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 17, 2024
The World Economic Forum highlighted that the intention of the conversation was to learn the efforts needed for "the challenges ahead." "As the World Health Organization continues to investigate the potential of so-called 'disease X,' what new efforts are needed to prepare health systems for the multiple challenges ahead?" questioned during the World Economic Forum.
China investigates a deadly virus
The warning came at a time when it was precisely known that new experiments have been carried out in China with a virus similar to covid-19 and that it has a high lethality rate in humanized mice. During the experiments the animals were infected with the pathogen , and “surprisingly” they all died within 7 to 8 days after inoculation.
According to a report published by bioRxiv , Chinese researchers experimented with a mutant strain of Covid known as pangolin coronavirus GX_P2V.
The document reveals that after the infection , high viral loads were discovered in the brain , lung, turbinates, eyes and trachea. A lower viral load was also detected in other organs such as the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, tongue, stomach and intestines.
The controversial study by doctors trained by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) allegedly aims to understand the interaction of the virus in humanized organisms and to do so, genetically altered mice were used.
The return of restrictions?
The information about the Chinese experiments and the warnings of the possible arrival of a pandemic are known after Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged before the United States Congress that the hypothesis that covid-19 came out of a laboratory is not a theory of The conspiracy.
Appearing before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Fauci also said that the social distancing policies he promoted when he was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases most likely lacked scientific evidence.
Everything happens at a time when, with the arrival of common respiratory diseases, several states have been imposing restrictions for some time while some countries have taken the opportunity to once again promote the use of masks. For example, in Spain they were once again mandatory in health centers .
