The Strategist

Expert: The world must invest billions to prevent future pandemics



03/04/2022 - 13:25



The world must invest billions of dollars to prevent the next pandemic by creating vaccines for each individual virus family. The Financial Times reports this, citing a leading expert.



pixnio
pixnio
"With a similar set of vaccines, it would take only 100 days to create effective vaccines against the new viruses. Five years would be enough time for the world to implement such a project," says Richard Hatchett, head of the Coalition for Innovative Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI).

Hatchett says the experts have been able to develop vaccines against COVID-19 in record time because they have previously developed vaccines against Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which is caused by a pathogen in the coronavirus family.

The expert warned that next time "the world could be less fortunate".

He also added that today's world, where all countries are interconnected, creates ideal conditions for disease outbreaks, including coronavirus infections.

"Why have we decided that this is the latest coronavirus? We know there are other coronaviruses in the wild," said the specialist.

Hatchett also recalled that "some of them could in theory be as infectious as Sars-COV-2 with a much higher lethality."

source: ft.com