"Virologist Dr Chris van Tulleken embarks on a global investigation into the hunt for the pathogen that could trigger the next pandemic and the cutting-edge science developed to tackle it.
Known only as ‘Disease X’, it is shrouded in uncertainty. Its origin is unknown, how it could spread is unclear, but its impact could be much more severe than Covid-19.
To uncover what Disease X might be, where it could emerge and what traits it needs to spread, Chris follows the paths of past deadly viruses. He visits the ground zero of the Nipah virus in Malaysia, which inspired the film Contagion. He also heads to the front line of the ongoing bird flu outbreak in US dairy cattle in California."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002jy6q/disease-x-hunting-the-next-pandemic (or repeated this Friday on BBC2 at 11 pm)
I only caught the latter part of it, but it seemed interesting. Conclusions perhaps not as expected. Modelling suggests that the situation might be a lot worse with a 3% mortality rate than a 50% one, as people are still prepared to take risks if they feel they're unlikely to die from it, so it would spread around the world, whereas at 50% people would be prepared to accept serious containment measures so the disease would likely be contained. Only the hotspot was in the USA, so who knows what might happen. Let's just hope it doesn't.
Known only as ‘Disease X’, it is shrouded in uncertainty. Its origin is unknown, how it could spread is unclear, but its impact could be much more severe than Covid-19.
To uncover what Disease X might be, where it could emerge and what traits it needs to spread, Chris follows the paths of past deadly viruses. He visits the ground zero of the Nipah virus in Malaysia, which inspired the film Contagion. He also heads to the front line of the ongoing bird flu outbreak in US dairy cattle in California."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002jy6q/disease-x-hunting-the-next-pandemic (or repeated this Friday on BBC2 at 11 pm)
I only caught the latter part of it, but it seemed interesting. Conclusions perhaps not as expected. Modelling suggests that the situation might be a lot worse with a 3% mortality rate than a 50% one, as people are still prepared to take risks if they feel they're unlikely to die from it, so it would spread around the world, whereas at 50% people would be prepared to accept serious containment measures so the disease would likely be contained. Only the hotspot was in the USA, so who knows what might happen. Let's just hope it doesn't.