One of the leading names in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has issued a grim warning: “COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last virus to threaten our lives, and the next epidemic may be both more contagious and more deadly.”
Dame Sarah Gilbert, presenting the BBC’s prestigious 44th Richard Dimbleby Conference, said that the world should make sure we are prepared for the next pandemic and that we should not lose sight of the important scientific insights we have gained in dealing with COVID-19.
“This won’t be the last time a virus has threatened our lives and our livelihoods. The truth is, the next one may be worse. It may be more contagious, more deadly, or both,” Dame Sarah told the BBC. We must understand that the enormous economic losses observed after the outbreak mean that there is still no funding for epidemic preparedness. The progress we have made and the knowledge we have gained should not be lost. ”
Professor Sarah Gilbert, Saïd Professor of Vaccine Science at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, was recognized earlier this year as Dame (the female version of Sir) in the Queen’s Birthday Hall of Fame for her important role in developing a COVID-19 vaccine. His work focuses on the development of vaccines against flu, malaria, and emerging viral pathogens, so when news of SARS-CoV-2 began to emerge, he immediately caught his attention.
He read that on New Year’s Day 2020, there were about four people in the Chinese city of Wuhan who had contracted mysterious cases of pneumonia. Within two weeks, he and his colleagues had designed a vaccine against the never-before-seen virus. Less than two years later, more than 2 billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are available in more than 170 countries worldwide, with most doses being used in low-income countries.
Dame Sarah is not alone in her concerns about potential epidemics of the near future. While COVID-19 has been dubbed by some as “the next epidemic in a century,” many infectious epidemiologists believe that it is unlikely that COVID-19 will be the last major disease outbreak of our time. Some also argue that not enough work has been done to prevent and manage future diseases that have the potential to spread around the world and become epidemics.
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