Covid-19 ‘not necessarily the big one,’ WHO warns
By
Miriam Berger
Dec. 29, 2020 at 10:49 a.m. EST
The
coronavirus pandemic might not be the “big one” that experts have long feared, World Health Organization emergencies chief Mike Ryan warned at the global health agency’s last virtual media briefing of the year.
Since the first reports of the coronavirus began circulating nearly a year ago, the WHO has repeatedly warned that the world must prepare for even deadlier pandemics in the future.
“This pandemic has been very severe,”
he said Monday. “It has affected every corner of this planet. But this is not necessarily the big one.”
The coronavirus, he said, should serve as a “wake-up call.”
“These threats will continue,” he said. “One thing we need to take from this pandemic, with all of the tragedy and loss, is we need to get our act together.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/12/29/coronavirus-2020-the-big-one-who-pandemics/