Disease X fever infects Davos: WEF to plan response to whatever big pandemic is next
- Reference: 1705040587
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/12/disease_x_wef/
- Source link:
The name might sound like something conjured up by Elon Musk, but the prospect of Disease X has been on the WHO's radar since it deemed the fabled pathogen a research priority in 2017. The WHO prioritizes research into Disease X alongside research into diseases like COVID-19, the Ebola virus, SARS, MERS, Zika and others.
The WHO has [1]warned several times since the coronavirus outbreak that a future pandemic could be just around the corner. Given researchers aren't working with a known pathogen – it's just assumed a really bad one will emerge at some point – work to prevent an ensuing global pandemic is hypothetical at best.
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[3]Speaking to the WEF on its Radio Davos podcast last year, Kate Kelland, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations chief scientific writer and author of a book on Disease X, said minimizing the impact of the as-yet unknown pathogen simply requires lots of research into already-known virus families. Assuming, of course, Disease X emerges from sources or takes a form we're already familiar with.
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Kelland gives COVID-19 as an example of how the fight against Disease X would ideally go down: Because that one was a coronavirus, something we know a fair amount about, fighting the infection was somewhat easier than it could have been.
"Because scientists were working for decades or more on Sars vaccines and also on Mers vaccine, they found out some very key pieces of information about coronaviruses," Kelland said. "If we do that kind of homework on every one of the 25 or so viral families that we already know have the potential to cause disease in humans … then we can actually gain a lot of knowledge ahead of time about something that doesn't exist yet."
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There's a real-world case to use an example: Monkeypox.
"We actually already had a vaccine that worked [for Monkeypox] because it came from the same family as smallpox, camel pox, all sorts of other viruses, and they share common traits," Kelland said.
In essence, Kelland said, it's all about doing the vaccinology legwork and research that puts the world in a good position "to produce something that will target a novel virus before that virus even emerges."
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Armed with that knowledge of much of the world's human-infecting pathogens, it's just a matter of building a global repository of such knowledge, which Kelland said is part of CEPI's mission.
The hope is that, with a proper research framework and global knowledge base in place, a future Disease X pandemic could be eliminated in 100 days.
"It is a vast amount of work, but it does have an end point and it is doable," Kelland said.
[8]COVID-19 infection surge detected in wastewater, signals potential new wave
[9]Petaflops help scientists understand why some COVID-19 variants are more contagious
[10]No, AI can't tell if you've got COVID-19 by listening to your coughs
[11]Zuckerberg to spend $3bn+ to rid world of all disease by 2100 (Starting with Facebook, right?)
It's that work that the WEF's Centre for Health and Healthcare will be discussing on January 17 when it meets to [12]talk about preparing for Disease X with members of the WHO and other health officials. We've asked the WEF to get more details on the session.
Along with the discussion at the WEF annual meeting, the WHO is also [13]working on a scientific framework for epidemic and pandemic research preparedness. The WHO is holding meetings this month and next to further develop its pathogen research programs.
While it's good news that staying ahead of Disease X may be doable, "The less good news is that it will take a lot of international cooperation and resources," Kelland earlier warned.
That might be difficult, but it's happened before - even amid a tense international climate like the one we have now.
"The vast majority of the smallpox eradication work was done during the Cold War," Kelland said. "The US and Russia were pointing missiles at each other, but they were also sharing vaccines." ®
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[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/next-pandemic-threat-pathogen-deadlier-than-covid-world-health-organization/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZaEb1isy6rWQvqHIi9qBjgAAAZY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/disease-x-pandemic-preparation-cepi/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZaEb1isy6rWQvqHIi9qBjgAAAZY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZaEb1isy6rWQvqHIi9qBjgAAAZY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZaEb1isy6rWQvqHIi9qBjgAAAZY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZaEb1isy6rWQvqHIi9qBjgAAAZY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/09/wastewater_covid_surge/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/23/petaflops_covid/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/05/ai_covid_cough/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/21/chanzuckerberg_to_rid_world_of_disease/
[12] https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2024/sessions/preparing-for-a-disease-x
[13] https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2024/01/09/default-calendar/a-scientific-framework-for-epidemic-and-pandemic-research-preparedness
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: WEF ?
They have a lot of money and, clearly, that means they're benevolent and only wish to forge the world into a better place.
Re: WEF ?
What's your problem? All they are planning to do is to is carry out research on viruses. Possibly by making them more deadly or transmissible (gain-of-function), but they would only ever do this in BSL3+ laboratories and there's no chance that these more deadly viruses could accidentally escape and cause another pandemic. Nothing to see here, move along.
Re: WEF ?
Because none of them are scientists or doctors and as such they know what is best for you.
WHO Is Too Much At The Mercy Of Political Winds
Remember when SARS-1 started spreading, they followed the rules previously agreed on, and declared a global health emergency. Then, when that started easing off a bit, never quite getting to the stage of killing millions, they were accused of jumping the gun. So when some years later, SARS-2 (COVID-19) came along, they scrapped the previously-agreed rules, and dithered about a bit, waiting until almost too late to declare a global health emergency. And some pilloried them for that, as well.
The only way to solve it is to give their edicts some legal, enforceable teeth. But of course there are countries in the world that would never agree to that.
Re: WHO Is Too Much At The Mercy Of Political Winds
No chance! WHO can advise all they want but it should be down to national governments to set and enforce rules.
Re: WHO Is Too Much At The Mercy Of Political Winds
Giving unelected people the power to overrule elected governments is a great idea...
Obligatory masks when coughing
Make face masks obligatory for those coughing in public places NOT ONLY DURING PANDEMIC. Give hefty fines, arrest if necessary.
This will also help overloaded public health services.
Re: Obligatory masks when coughing
Fascist.
Seriously, you want to arrest people for coughing without wearing a mask? Even though masks aren't proven to actually work (against respiratory viruses), and most studies show very little benefit if any? Once the garbage studies have been removed, any benefit is not even statistically significant.
Also, what if you are coughing because it's cold and damp, or just a bit dusty?
Why stop at arrest, surely punishment beatings should be considered?
I mean they didn't stop the last pandemic, even though almost everyone was wearing one at some points, but why let a few facts stop your authoritarian tendancies?
Seriously WEF?! WTF! Don't feed the trolls
With all the mis-information nonsense of the WEF being a sort of shadow government run by a cabal of what-not; it's definitely a very smart move to put "Disease X" on the agenda.
Do this, yes; but do it within the framework of the WHO or in academia.
Having the world economic forum discuss public health invites much more than a healthy dose of skepticism from all sorts of informed, mis-informed, non-informed and informationally deformed people.
Re: Seriously WEF?! WTF! Don't feed the trolls
Alright Klaus.
There's one thing we can do...
"I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science."
Jon Stewart
WEF
WEF members made a killing (wink) on the plandemic.
So of course they will be looking at the sequel.
... and when it is going to take place
"You will own nothing and you will be happy"
WEF ?
The WEF is not a democratically elected group of people, they are not representatives of any country and appear to be unaccountable..
Can someone inform/remind me why these people should be considered as trustworthy.