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What is "Disease X" and why is there so much talk about it?

2024-01-24 14:22:20Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

What is "Disease X" and why is there so much talk about it?

At the World Economic Forum, which was held in Davos, Switzerland, a hypothetical contagious and deadly disease called "Disease X" was discussed.

Such a disease does not exist. But this name has been given to a hypothetical pathogen, and this concept is being used to help the world plan for future health crises.

In Davos, on January 17, global health care experts spoke at a forum on "Preparing for 'Disease X'". The name of this non-existent disease was given by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018.

Before this panel discussion was held in Switzerland, social media users began to share a series of posts, which reflected "Disease X" as a real disease, and describing it as an inevitable threat to society.

"'Disease X' is the mysterious contagious disease that will be discussed today [January 17] at the World Economic Forum," read an Instagram post that received 2,000 likes on the day the panel discussion took place in Davos.

“Apparently it [the disease] can cause 20 times more deaths than COVID. Remember… they always tell us what will happen in the future,” the post read.

WHO's concept of "Disease X"

But "Disease X" is not a real disease. The WHO introduced this concept as part of its 2018 list of diseases that pose the greatest public health risk. This information helps guide global research and development in areas such as vaccine discovery, testing and treatments.

"Disease X" represents a hypothetical pathogen that could one day cause an epidemic or pandemic, according to a 2022 announcement by the WHO, when the organization updated the list.

"'Disease X' represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic may be caused by a currently unknown pathogen that could cause human disease. This project explicitly aims to enable the early cross-sectoral readiness of the research and development program that is also important for an unknown 'Disease X',” the WHO website states.

The initial version of the disease list, which did not include "Disease X", was published in 2017 and another updated list is planned to be published in the first half of 2024.

The real diseases that are listed on this WHO list are, among others: COVID-19, Zika, Ebola and SARS.

In Davos, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, started his discussion by clarifying the issue of "Disease X".

"'Disease X' is getting a lot of attention and I'm sure you've seen it on social media. But this is not a new idea. The first time we used this terminology was in 2018. Discussions about it started in 2017 and I had just taken over as CEO. As you know, every year we list emerging diseases and this could be MERS, Zika, Ebola, which we know about. But then we said that there are unknown things that can happen. And whatever happens is a matter of when, not if," said Tedros.

"Therefore, we have to plan for something like this, for a disease that we don't know about, but which could appear. That's when we decided to call it 'Disease X'. 'Disease X' is planning for an unknown disease. I just wanted to clarify that, because I've seen it's gotten a lot of attention," he added.

Tedros said the WHO is already preparing for the next pandemic, acknowledging that in the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, China and quickly spread around the world, there have been many problems.

Among the problems he listed was the sharing of information about the disease, up to the injustice in the distribution of vaccines that were discovered to fight the pandemic.

"We have already initiated many initiatives. We have created a pandemic fund. This, in fact, is all about preparation. Some countries have already benefited from this. Justice was a serious problem. Many countries waited for vaccines," he said, adding that to address this problem, mRA vaccine development centers have been established in Africa in order to increase local vaccine production.

The Forum in Davos told AFP that the panel on "Disease X" was created "to address the need to improve the access and sustainability of the health system and to enable public-private cooperation to have well-being for all individuals and for reduced risks, such as the lack of manpower in the health care sector".

False claims about "Disease X"

But the announcement to hold this discussion encouraged the spread of false claims about this unreal disease, such as the following post:

"'Disease X' is coming. But it is not a chaotic pandemic that we have to manage. It's a genocidal murderous weapon, condoned by the worst members of humanity," InfoWars founder Alex Jones wrote on January 17 at X.

Jones had made millions spreading conspiracy theories about mass shootings and COVID-19.

Similar narratives were also spread on Instagram, where one post said: "The globalists have no problem at all releasing a biological weapon into use in order to have absolute power."

Despite these false claims made on social media, the WHO warned two years ago that it was already working to prepare for new pathogens and viruses that might emerge.

"Targeting priority pathogens and virus families for research and development of countermeasures is essential for a rapid and effective epidemic and pandemic response," said Dr. Michael Ryon, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, in a statement. for media published in 2022.

The Associated Press asked the WHO for comment on the false claims about "Disease X," but the organization sent a statement that was almost identical to the statement issued in 2022.

Since the end of 2019, the world has faced the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed close to 7 million people.

Despite the fact that the intensity of the spread of the disease has decreased, some states are still facing outbreaks of the coronavirus.

WHO's Tedros, during the panel in Davos, said that although the idea of ​​"Disease X" is based on a pathogen that does not exist, a disease like COVID could appear in the future, and the world must be ready to to face it.

"Even though COVID came immediately, we are preparing for a disease like COVID. You can even call COVID as 'The first Disease X'. And it could happen again. Of course, there may be people who may say that all this can cause panic. It is better to wait for something to happen, because in our history such things have happened many times, and prepare for it," he said.

Thomas Russo, head of infectious diseases at the University of Medicine at Buffalo, told AFP that preparation is necessary in case there could be an outbreak of a new disease after COVID-19.

"With the end of the pandemic, we have lost the momentum, therefore the discussion in Davos is keeping the momentum alive and we hope that we will have continued financial support for research" in the field of health, he said./REL


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