As the winter season brings back a surge in respiratory illness and pandemic-era practices such as mask mandates, global health experts are thinking ahead about how to prepare for the next big outbreak.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a panel of health industry leaders discussed the importance of preplanning for the outbreak of a hypothetical “Disease X”.
News of the panel sparked conspiracy from right-wing accounts on social media that world leaders are launching the next pandemic or moving to once again “restrict” free speech and reinstate mask mandates. The WHO has said that such preparation is meant to reduce COVID-19-era devastations such as the insufficient capacity of medical systems or the trillions of dollars that were lost in the economy.
Here’s what we know about Disease X, and what “pandemic preparedness” means.
Disease X is not a specific disease but is the name given to a potential novel infectious agent.
It represents an illness which is currently unknown but could pose a serious microbial threat to humans in the future. It is necessary to be prepared because there is a vast reservoir of viruses circulating among wildlife which could become a source of a new infectious disease to which humans do not have immunity.
Original from www.aljazeera.com