‘A Matter of When, Not if’: W.H.O. Director Warns of ‘Disease X’ Pandemic at World Government Summit

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addresses the opening ses
RYAN LIM/AFP via Getty Images
Olivia Rondeau

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) made yet another warning of an impending “Disease X” outbreak, with Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus telling world leaders it is “a matter of when, not if.”

At the World Government Summit, held in Dubai from February 12-14, Ghebreyesus told attendees his previous predictions came to fruition in the form of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Now, the W.H.O. director believes a new pandemic, for which the international community is ill-prepared, is on the horizon. 

Renewing urgent calls for a global pandemic treaty to be agreed upon by May, Ghebreyesus dismissed suspicions of the treaty being a W.H.O. power-grab and called it “mission critical for humanity.”

“Today I stand before you in the aftermath of COVID-19 with millions of people dead, with social, economic and political shocks that reverberate to this day,” the health official said to the attendees, which included World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab. 

He added that while “some progress has been made like improvements in surveillance, the Pandemic Fund, building capacities in vaccine production… the world is not prepared for a pandemic.”

Ghebreyesus, the former Ethiopian Minister of Health, went on to warn that “the painful lessons we learned are in danger of being forgotten as attention turns to the many other crises confronting our world.”

The health official went on to say that if the world fails to learn lessons from the coronavirus pandemic, “we will pay dearly next time, and there will be a next time.”

In the international health community, “Disease X” is used to refer to a future pandemic-causing virus.

“History teaches us that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if,” he added. “It may be caused by an influenza virus, or a new coronavirus or a new pathogen we don’t even know about yet — what we call Disease X. As things stand, the world remains unprepared for the next Disease X, and the next pandemic.”

Ghebreyesus made fear-inspiring statements about the so-called “Disease X” at the January 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling for countries to join the W.H.O.’s pandemic treaty to avoid another discombobulated pandemic response.

“The pandemic agreement can bring all the experience, all the challenges that we have faced and all the solutions into one,” Ghebreyesus argued in Davos. “That agreement can help us to prepare for the future in a better way. This is a common global interest, and very narrow national interests should not come into the way.”

When pitching the treaty again last week, the W.H.O. director brushed off concerns that the health organization abused its power during the coronavirus pandemic or would during a Disease X outbreak. 

“Let me be clear: WHO did not impose anything on anyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not lockdowns, not mask mandates, not vaccine mandates,” he said. “We don’t have the power to do that, we don’t want it and we’re not trying to get it.”

However, the W.H.O. did face international backlash over its slow response to investigating China for the outbreak of coronavirus, and downplaying the Wuhan lab leak theory. 

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