Next pandemic could be ‘more lethal’: scientist

A future pandemic could be ‘‘more contagious’’ and ‘‘more lethal’’ than Covid19, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert has warned, urging against complacency when preparing for new disease threats.

Delivering the 44th Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Dame Sarah, the cocreator of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, said the scientific advances made in research against fighting deadly viruses ‘‘must not be lost’’.

‘‘This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods,’’ Gilbert said. ‘‘The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both.’’

She added: ‘‘We cannot allow a situation where we have gone through all we have gone through, and then find that the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness.

‘‘The advances we have made, and the knowledge we have gained, must not be lost,’’ she said.

Efforts are under way to lay the foundations for a ‘‘100-day’’ vaccine that could stop the next pandemic in its tracks, with a plan to see scientists create an estimated 100 prototype vaccines for the 25 viral families known to infect humans. Scientists say this means that, when the next virus with pandemic potential emerges, they will be able to build on the prototype to develop a vaccine ready for use within 100 days.

The vaccine ‘‘moonshot’’ is being spearheaded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an organisation that helped fund the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna Covid jabs.

Gilbert compared investments in global health security to funding for defence and intelligence services.

‘‘Just as we invest in armed forces and intelligence and diplomacy to defend against wars, we must invest in people, research, manufacturing and institutions to defend against pandemics,’’ she said.

So far the coronavirus has killed more than five million people and infected at least 265 million. But Gilbert, whose team developed a vaccine that has now been used in more than 170 countries, warned that ‘‘this pandemic is not done with us’’ yet.

Her comments come amid mounting fears of the threat posed by the Omicron variant – which has now been detected in more than 30 countries across the globe.