Join author Kate Kelland for a book talk on how the world can learn from the mistakes of pandemics past and prepare to face down future viral threats.
In her book, DISEASE X, Kelland draws on her unique access to key players and their experiences at the frontlines of pandemic planning and response and takes the reader inside global efforts to prevent future outbreaks from exploding into deadly crises. Distilling insights from health security experts, examining epidemics and pandemics of the past and present, and analysing what governments, societies and their people got right and wrong in the response to COVID-19 and other devastating disease outbreaks, Kelland explores why and how viruses—tiny as they are—can wreak enormous havoc on our way of life.
Disease X is the codename given by the World Health Organization to a pathogen currently unknown to science that could cause havoc to humankind. Emerging infections are sending us multiple warnings that another Disease X is looming. We had SARS in 2002, H5N1 bird flu in 2004, H1N1 ‘swine flu’ in 2009, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014, Zika in 2015 and then the big one -- COVID-19.
While the COVID pandemic is beginning to fade into recent history, multiple viral outbreaks and epidemics continue to emerge and spread in many regions of the world – from Mpox to Marburg to H5N1. Kelland counsels against ignoring these ever clearer and more frequent warning signs and advocates instead for preparedness: PREPARE to be Scared, PREPARE to Move Fast, PREPARE to Share, PREPARE to Fail, she urges in DISEASE X. These features of speed, bravery, collaboration, agility and humility are factors Kelland identifies as crucial to tackling and containing future disease epidemics before they can wreck billions of lives and livelihoods, as COVID-19 did. She also tells a story of hope, giving readers a glimpse of a future where the threat of pandemics has been neutralised by a prepared and collaborative world.
