The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a dire warning about the likelihood of Disease X breaking out, telling a global summit it is “a matter of when, not if” a fresh pandemic will strike.
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus gave a similar warning to one he issued in 2018 that a pandemic was likely, and was proven right after the coronavirus outbreak spread worldwide, killing millions of people.
The global health leader repeated his call for a global treaty to be agreed upon by May.
Critics, including Mike Pence-founded nonprofit advocacy group Advancing American Freedom (AAF), have argued the legally-binding treaty would transfer sovereignty to a global organization and represent a power grab.
Tedros dismissed such suggestions as “categorically false”.
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The public health official warned that if the international community fails to learn those lessons, “we will pay dearly next time, and there will be a next time”.
“History teaches us that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if,” he warned.
“It may be caused by an influenza virus, or a new coronavirus or a new pathogen we don’t even know about yet — what we call Disease X.”
Disease X is the name given for a hypothetical “placeholder” virus that has not yet emerged, but scientists have warned it could be 20 times more deadly than COVID-19.
He said: “As things stand, the world remains unprepared for the next Disease X, and the next pandemic.”
Tedros said though Disease X has been getting a lot of attention lately, it’s far from a new concern for scientists.
The health leader said: “We first used the term Disease X in 2018, the same time as I spoke here at this World Governments Summit, as a placeholder for a disease we don’t even know about yet, but for which we can nonetheless prepare.
“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.”
