A new study by a health intelligence firm reveals another covid-like deadly pandemic may hit the world in about 10 years. Read to know more about the fast and frequent emergence of viruses.
Another Covid-like deadly pandemic in sight?
As per a study by Airfinity, a London-based firm, there is a “27.5 percent chance” of a deadly pandemic gripping the world in the next decade. As per its website, it is a health intelligence firm. It “tracks, predicts, and simulates population-level disease outcomes in real-time to inform decisions that can increase the global life span.” According to the study, a combination of increasing populations, climate change, rise in international travel. And the threat from zoonotic diseases increases the frequency of an outbreak.
It also points out that pandemic preparedness and vaccine rollouts are going to play a key role in fighting it. “A robust pandemic preparedness system is the world’s insurance against a Covid-19-like pandemic or something even worse,” stated Rasmus Bech Hansen. Hansen is the co-founder and CEO of the firm. “This new risk assessment outlines the likelihood of future pandemics under varying degrees of severity. It shows that in a worst-case scenario, an avian flu type mutation that transmits from human to human could kill as many as 15,000 in a single day in the UK,” stated Airfinity. “Our modeling shows that the risk of a pandemic as deadly as COVID-19 in the next 10 years is 71 percent less with these countermeasures in place,” it added.
Fast and Freqent: Virus emergencies
The firm noted that the likelihood of a deadly pandemic drops from 27.5 to 8.1 percent if vaccines are rolled out within 100 days of discovering a new pathogen. The study takes notes from the lack of vaccines for several high-risk pathogens. Especially such as the Marburg virus, MERS, and Zika. “High-risk pathogens including Zika, MERS and Marburg virus don’t have approved vaccines or treatments. And existing surveillance policies are unlikely to detect a new pandemic before it is too late. This highlights the urgent need for new and data-driven pandemic preparedness measures,” explained Airfinity.
“So far, just a small number of people have been infected. And no signs of it have made the jump to human-to-human transmission. Skyrocketing rates in birds and increasing incursions in mammals have led to concern among scientists. And governments that the virus may be mutating in ways that could make it easier to spread,” it added.
