disease x: inside the race to end pandemics

A pacy, real-life page-turner by Reuters journalist on the global 100-days mission to identify and catch the next virus outbreak, codenamed DISEASE X, before it spreads worldwide.

With a foreword written by former British Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, DISEASE X is a must-read, fast-paced, almost-real-time account of how international scientists and global public health leaders are preparing the world to be able to contain outbreaks of new and re-emerging infectious diseases before they spawn deadly global contagions like Covid-19.

DISEASE X is the codename given by the World Health Organisation to a pathogen currently unknown to science that could cause havoc to humankind. Emerging infections are sending us multiple warnings that another Disease X is looming. We’ve had SARS in 2002, H5N1 bird flu in 2004, H1N1 ’swine flu’ in 2009, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014, Zika in 2015 and now COVID-19. These events are not freak events, but are happening continually, and at an increasing cadence.

Written by a long-standing ex-Reuters global health and science correspondent, Kate Kelland, DISEASE X uses privileged access to the body leading international efforts to control viral outbreaks, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and its CEO, Dr Richard Hatchett. CEPI seed-funded three successful COVID vaccines, including the AstraZeneca and Moderna shots. Weaving in insights from the likes of Bill Gates, Erna Solberg, Jeremy Farrar and Seth Berkley, DISEASE X explores the the emergence of the novel coronavirus and the deadly crisis it caused. It analyses the responses of global health organisations and experts, including the WHO; national governments in Britain, China and the USA; COVAX, the global vaccine allocation facility; pharmaceutical companies; and leading research scientists.

Ultimately, DISEASE X is a story of hope. It tells of how, throughout the devastation of Covid, science and human ingenuity have shown that the world can devise intricate new weapons at breath-taking pace against deadly diseases it has never encountered before. It also tells how the world’s public health scientists are embarking on a 100 Days Mission to embed that scientific progress into a pandemic-busting plan to defuse future threats from as-yet-unknown pathogens in a little over three months. This is the 100 Days Mission - backed by the G7 and G20 - that will see a newly prepared world, one that can move at speed to snuff out future threats before they become deadly pandemics.