Disease X: Governments Are Preparing For A New Pandemic

Disease X: Governments Are Preparing For A Scarier New Pandemic

MARIE HAWTHORNE

In June, a bipartisan bill was introduced to the House of Representatives to develop medical countermeasures for viruses with pandemic potential.  Later in June, when the bill was introduced to the Senate, a section had been added suggesting a budget of $40 million per year for 2024 through 2028.

This $40 million annually would be on top of the 5% of our healthcare budget we will be expected to pay the World Health Organization (WHO), assuming the Pandemic Accord passes.

What is Disease X, how likely are we to encounter it, and how concerned should we be?

Back in 2018, the WHO came up with the name "Disease X" as a placeholder for any disease that hadn't been discovered yet.  The name "Disease X" gets thrown around in the press every few years for a few weeks at a time, stirring up fear of the next pandemic.  In fact, the New York Times referred to Covid as Disease X in a February 2020 opinion piece.

And while the Disease X Act of 2023 was introduced to Congress quietly over the summer, in the past week, Disease X fearmongering has been everywhere, just in time for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos.

On Wednesday, WHO chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus will give a talk at Davos titled "Preparing for Disease X," in which he will attempt to sell the world on the "novel efforts needed to prepare healthcare systems for the multiple challenges ahead."  This statement is based on the assumption that Disease X will be far deadlier than Covid.

They've tied Disease X to climate change.

WEF-affiliated figures like Tedros believe we should be living in fear of new diseases emerging due to climate change. What's the rationale?  As permafrost melts and environments change, animals move around, and new interactions between humans and animals occur.  With increasing and varied human-animal interaction, so increases the threat of new diseases.

We're also supposed to be afraid of diseases mutating within livestock and then jumping to humans. This is actually a real issue. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOS) have been known to spawn various strains of swine and avian flu viruses.

However, make no mistake about it.  Proposed measures within the Pandemic Accord will not be about improving animal welfare but about ending livestock agriculture and consolidating the food supply, as we've discussed elsewhere.

If this sounds outrageous, look into OneHealth.  This refers to the idea that, since the health of humans, animals, and the environment is all interconnected, all sectors need to be looked at in conjunction with each other to address new diseases.

We are all connected.  However, by linking animal and environmental health with human health, if the Pandemic Accord is implemented, governments will be able to take action regarding livestock practices if the WHO declares a pandemic.  It could also potentially give climate emergencies the same priority as health emergencies.

Again, this may sound far-fetched, but these conclusions have been drawn by people far more intelligent and qualified than I am.  In October, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, both professors in evolutionary biology, discuss the broader implications of the WHO Pandemic Accord as it relates to OneHealth.

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