Health experts warn 'Disease X' could be more deadly than Covid

Global health experts fear the next major pandemic could be on its way and that it could be more serious than the Coronavirus. The World Health Organisation explains that the new disease, dubbed Disease X, is more of a probability rather than possibility and could hit at any moment.

Kate Bingham chaired the UK's Vaccine Taskforce between May and December 2020, and says that we shouldn't be complacent just because Covid-19 is now "largely regarded as a routine illness". The 57-year old warned in the Mail: "Let me put it this way: the 1918–19 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide, twice as many as were killed in World War I."Today, we could expect a similar death toll from one of the many viruses that already exist.

Kate continued: "In a sense, we got lucky with Covid-19, despite the fact that it caused 20 million or more deaths across the world. The point is that the vast majority of people infected with the virus managed to recover. Explaining the increase in pandemics, Kate says it's not simply a "random patch of bad luck". She says that globalisation is a key cause, as the over-populating of cities and deforestation have created the "ideal conditions" for viruses to jump between species.

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