Article: Next pandemic likely to be caused by flu virus, scientists warn

"Influenza is the pathogen most likely to trigger a new pandemic in the near future, according to leading scientists.

An international survey, to be published next weekend, will reveal that 57% of senior disease experts now think that a strain of flu virus will be the cause of the next global outbreak of deadly infectious illness.

The belief that influenza is the world’s greatest pandemic threat is based on long-term research showing it is constantly evolving and mutating, said Cologne University’s Jon Salmanton-García, who carried out the study.

“Each winter influenza appears,” he said. “You could describe these outbreaks as little pandemics. They are more or less controlled because the different strains that cause them are not virulent enough – but that will not necessarily be the case for ever.”

Details of the survey – which involved inputs from a total of 187 senior scientists – will be revealed at European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) congress in Barcelona next weekend."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ely-to-be-caused-by-flu-virus-scientists-warn

 

Wasn't the last pandemic most likely to be caused by a flu virus - until it wasn't, and the assumption that it would be flu had led to entirely the wrong kit, approaches, etc. being used?

 

I saw the thread title and came here to say the exact same thing.

What is it with so called experts being unable to just say "we don't know" and then maybe prepare for all options....?!