DISEASE X is the codename given by the World Health Organisation 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’ve had SARS in 2002, H5N1 bird flu in 2004, H1N1 ‘swine flu’ in 2009, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014, Zika in 2015 and now COVID-19. These events are not freak events, but are happening continually, and at an increasing cadence.  

Written by a long-standing ex-Reuters global health and science correspondent,  Kate Kelland, DISEASE X  uses privileged access to the body leading international efforts to control viral outbreaks, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and its CEO, Dr Richard Hatchett. CEPI seed-funded three successful COVID vaccines, including the AstraZeneca and Moderna shots. Weaving in insights from the likes of Bill Gates, Erna Solberg, Jeremy Farrar and Seth Berkley, DISEASE X explores the the emergence of the novel coronavirus and the deadly crisis it caused. It analyses the responses of global  health organisations and experts, including the WHO; national  governments in Britain, China and the USA; COVAX, the  global vaccine allocation facility; pharmaceutical companies;  and leading research scientists.

 Ultimately, DISEASE X is a story of hope. It tells of how, throughout the devastation of Covid, science and human ingenuity have shown that the world can devise intricate new weapons at breath-taking pace against deadly diseases it has never encountered before. It also tells how the world’s public health scientists are embarking on a 100 Days Mission to embed that scientific progress into a pandemic-busting plan to defuse future threats from as-yet-unknown pathogens in a little over three months. This is the 100 Days Mission – backed by the G7 and G20 – that will see a newly prepared world, one that can move at speed to snuff out future threats before they become deadly pandemics.