Europe must be prepared for the “high risk” of a flu pandemic, a head of the World Health Organization (WHO) sensationally claimed today.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the UN agency’s acting director of pandemic preparedness, said it was “certain” the continent would face the threat of influenza.
Speaking on a WHO podcast, he argued that Covid would not be “the last pandemic we will face in our lifetimes”.
Instead, an unknown future threat could occur in an unprecedented way.
But the respected epidemiologist also admitted that the coronavirus “didn’t have to be as bad as it was.”
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the UN agency’s acting director of pandemic preparedness, said it was “certain” the continent would face the threat of influenza. Speaking on a WHO podcast, she argued that Covid would not be “the last pandemic we will face in our lifetimes”.
In 2018, WHO identified nine priority diseases (listed) that pose the greatest risk to public health. They were considered to be at higher risk due to lack of treatments or their ability to cause a pandemic. This included Disease X, a provisional name for an unknown future threat.
Sir John Bell (pictured), who served as Boris Johnson’s testing tsar during Covid, said it was “inconceivable” 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 occurring within 20 years.
She said Health in Europe: ‘For me, the flu is a certainty because there is a lot of circulation. It has infected many different species.
‘We have avian influenza and the opportunities for reassortment (genetic changes in a virus that allow it to jump between species), the opportunities for an influenza virus pandemic are high.
‘That’s why we have a whole system to be prepared for this. The challenge is: will we see another coronavirus pandemic?
‘Given that SARS-CoV-2 caused a pandemic, this is undoubtedly an opportunity. The question is: will we see an arbovirus pandemic?
Arboviruses, also known as arthropod-borne viruses, refer to infections that are transmitted to people through the bite of infected insects, such as mosquitoes and ticks.
He added: “Now, I’m not saying this to scare people who are listening to this, but for us it’s something we have to be prepared for.”
‘So we have to think outside the box. Really prepare for known threats, but also think outside the box for something different, maybe waterborne or whatever.
‘So, for me, pandemics, unfortunately, are part of what we will face throughout our lives.
“I don’t think this is the last pandemic we will face in our lifetimes.”
For decades, leading scientists have warned that bird flu is the most likely candidate to trigger the next pandemic.
Experts say this is due to the threat of recombination, when two viruses fuse to create a hybrid.
Naturally high levels of human flu increase the risk of someone having both diseases at the same time, which can lead to such a situation.
Others have long speculated that Disease
Some have even warned that this could be caused by a biological mutation, or an accident or terrorist attack, taking the world by surprise and spreading rapidly.
The now-defunct Public Health England also warned in 2019 that the growing threat of superbugs could help a once harmless bacteria become Disease X.
Covid itself was originally thought to have come from an animal, probably a bat.
However, a growing number of experts suspect that experiments conducted in Wuhan may have caused its spread among people.
When asked later during the podcast whether the WHO was prepared for the next pandemic, Dr Van Kerkhove admitted that while it had “robust systems” in place, the “world’s trust in science” has been shaken.
He added: ‘There have to be commitments to ensure we do better next time.
‘Covid didn’t have to be as bad as it was, as it is and we owe it to our children, our grandchildren, to make sure that we maintain these systems and we have that commitment to make sure that we do better. next time.’
comes as Sir Jeremy Farrar, an influential member of SAGE — The No10 advisory panel told the Covid Inquiry last year that another pandemic is “inevitable”.
Giving evidence at a distance he said: ‘It is clear that we live in an era of pandemic, which will have more frequent and more complex pandemics.
“And yet it is extraordinarily difficult, when governments are faced with day-to-day challenges, to also put in place those critical infrastructure, resilience and surge capacity and excess capacity, that would allow us to cope with the unexpected, but inevitable. disturbances that are going to occur.”
Sir Jeremy, who now works for the World Health Organization as its the chief scientist, leaving SAGE during the pandemic after condemning the country’s laissez-faire response.
He told the inquiry: “I think in the UK and around the world, despite warnings over the last 20 years, there has been a complacency about the need to prepare for these kinds of major disruptive events that go far beyond of health in general. of the society.
“And the UK, yes, was accommodating about planning for it.”
Meanwhile, in March, Sir John Bell, who served as Boris Johnson’s testing tsar during Covid, said Britons need to “get used to” the fact that “another pandemic is definitely going to happen.”
Addressing MPs who sit on the Health and Social Care Committee, he argued there was a “20 or 30 per cent chance” of another pandemic occurring within 20 years.
Sir John, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, also admitted that Covid itself could have been “much worse”.
He said that if the Omicron variant, which did not emerge until November 2021, had been the initial strain, “the whole system would have collapsed.”
