'Disease X' could be 20 times deadlier than COVID-19, says expert. Top 10 updates
Daily Mail, Kate Bingham, who served as the chair of the UK's Vaccine Taskforce from May to December 2020, expressed her belief that Disease X is expected to be considerably more perilous than COVID-19. Also Read: ‘Disease X’ can cause a more fatal pandemic? What WHO says 2. Based on expert estimates, Disease X could potentially result in up to 50 million fatalities.
"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," she told the Daily Mail. In response to Disease X, Bingham asserted, “the world will have to prepare for mass vaccination drives and deliver the doses in record time." 3.
She disclosed that while scientists have identified 25 virus families encompassing thousands of individual viruses, she holds the view that there are millions of viruses yet to be discovered, and these have the potential to evolve into pandemics. Also Read: What is ‘Disease X’? Why top experts are warning of another COVID-like pandemic? 4. "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. Imagine Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola [67%]. Somewhere in the world, it's replicating, and sooner or later, somebody will start feeling sick." 5.
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