The description of the session, entitled "Preparing for Disease X" states: "With fresh warnings from the World Health Organization that an unknown 'Disease X' could result in 20 times more fatalities than the coronavirus pandemic, what novel efforts are needed to prepare healthcare systems for the multiple challenges ahead?"
Among its speakers are the Director-General of the WHO, the Minister of Health for Brazil, and the chairman of AstraZeneca.
The term "Disease X" was coined by the WHO and, according to the Washington Post, is "an illness caused by a presently unknown, yet serious microbial threat."
WHO added it to a list of pathogens requiring top-priority research alongside SARS and Ebola and has stated that it must be studied to "enable early cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant" for an unknown disease.
Kate Bingham, who served as the chair of the UK's Vaccine Taskforce in 2020, wrote in the Daily Mail that "We don’t yet know for certain what form it will take — just that its arrival, according to global health experts, is not just a possibility but a probability."
"To combat Disease X," she continued, "we will once again need vaccines to be engineered and delivered in record time," naturally.
She implored readers to "imagine Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola. Somewhere in the world, it’s replicating, and sooner or later, somebody will start feeling sick."
The 45-minute forum surrounding the mysterious Disease X will take place on January 17th at 11:30 CET.
