‘High risk’ of new pandemic with threat of flu jumping from animals to humans ‘a certainty’, World Health Organization czar warns for outbreak preparedness
Europe must be prepared for the ‘high risk’ of a flu pandemic, a World Health Organization (WHO) chief sensationally claimed today.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the UN Pandemic Preparedness Agency, said it was a “certainty” that the continent would face the threat of flu.
In a WHO podcast, she argued that Covid would not be “the last pandemic we will face in our lifetimes.”
Instead, an unknown future threat could strike in unprecedented ways.
But the respected epidemiologist also admitted that the coronavirus “didn’t have to be as bad as it was.”
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the UN Pandemic Preparedness Agency, said it was a “certainty” that the continent would face the threat of flu. In a WHO podcast, she argued that Covid would not be ‘the last pandemic we will face in our lifetimes’
In 2018, WHO identified (listed) nine priority diseases that pose the greatest risk to public health. They were considered the riskiest due to a lack of treatments or their potential to cause a pandemic. This included Disease X – a temporary name for an unknown future threat
Sir John Bell (pictured), who was Boris Johnson’s testing czar during Covid, said it was ‘unthinkable’ that the country would not face another ‘major event’. Addressing MPs sitting on the health and social care committee, he argued there was a ’20 to 30 per cent chance’ of another pandemic happening within 20 years.
She said Health in Europe: ‘For me, flu is a certainty because it is in circulation so much. It has infected many different species.
‘We have bird flu and the potential for reassortment (genetic changes to a virus that allows it to jump between species), the chances of a flu virus pandemic are high.
‘That’s why we have a whole system in place to be prepared for this. The challenge is: will we see another coronavirus pandemic?
“Given that SARS-CoV-2 has caused a pandemic, this is certainly an opportunity. The question is: will we see an Arbovirus pandemic?’
Arboviruses, also known as arthropod-borne viruses, refer to infections transmitted to humans through the bite of infected insects such as mosquitoes and ticks.
She added: “I’m not saying this to scare people listening to this, but for us it’s something we have to be prepared for.
‘So we have to think out of the box. Really prepare for the known threats, but also think outside the box for something different, maybe water-based or whatever.
“So for me, pandemics are unfortunately part of what we’re going to have to deal with in our lifetimes.
“I don’t believe this will be the last pandemic we will face in our lifetimes.”
For decades, leading scientists have warned that bird flu is the most likely candidate for causing the next pandemic.
Experts say this is due to the threat of recombination, when two viruses merge to create a hybrid.
High natural levels of human flu increase the risk of someone having both at the same time, which could cause such a situation.
Others have long speculated that disease
Some have even warned that it could be caused by a biological mutation, or by an accident or terrorist attack, which takes the world by surprise and spreads rapidly.
The now defunct Public Health England also warned in 2019 that the growing threat of superbugs could help a once harmless bacterium become disease X.
Covid itself is originally thought to have come from an animal, most likely a bat.
However, a growing number of experts suspect that experiments conducted in Wuhan caused its spread among humans.
Later during the podcast, it was asked if the WHO was prepared for the next pandemic. Dr. Van Kerkhove admitted that although she had ‘strong systems’, ‘world confidence in science’ has taken a hit.
She added: ‘Agreements need to be made to ensure we do better next time.
‘Covid didn’t have to be as bad as it was, as it is now, and we owe it to our children and grandchildren to ensure that we maintain these systems and have that commitment to ensure we make it better doing. the next time.’
It comes as Sir Jeremy Farrar, an influential member of SENSIBLE – No10’s advisory panel told the Covid inquiry last year that a new pandemic is ‘inevitable’.
Providing evidence remotely, he said: ‘It is clear that we live in a pandemic era, in which pandemics will occur more frequently and more complexly.
“And yet, when governments are faced with the challenges of everyday life, it is extremely difficult to also put in place those critical infrastructures, resilience, peak capacity and reserve capacity that would allow us to deal with the unexpected, but inevitable. disruptions that will occur.’
Sir Jeremy, who now works for the World Health Organisation Chief scientist, stop SAGE during the pandemic after condemning the country’s laissez-faire response.
He told the inquiry: ‘I think there is complacency in Britain and the rest of the world, despite the warnings over the last 20 years, about the need to prepare for these kinds of major disruptive events that are much further afield. than the health of the whole. of society.
“And Britain was, yes, complacent in terms of planning for that.”
Meanwhile, Sir John Bell – who served as Boris Johnson’s testing czar during Covid – said Britons should ‘get used to’ the fact that there will ‘certainly be another pandemic’.
Addressing MPs on the health and social care committee, he argued there was a ’20 to 30 per cent chance’ of another pandemic happening within 20 years.
Sir John, professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, also admitted that Covid itself could have been ‘much worse’.
He said if the Omicron variant, which only emerged in November 2021, had been the first strain, “the whole system would have collapsed.”