The hunt for Disease X: What will cause the next pandemic?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
It’s three years since the then prime minister Boris Johnson announced the first national lockdown in an attempt to halt the spread of covid. So, as we move on from the last pandemic, what might cause the next one? And have we learned enough this time round to stop it before it gets out of hand?
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Guest: Ben Spencer, Science Editor, The Sunday Times.
Host: Sean O'Neill.
Clips: BBC News, Al Jazeera, Parliament.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 3 years ago, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson went on television and told the nation, |
| 0:13.6 | from this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home. |
| 0:22.0 | Since then, the COVID pandemic has killed over 200,000 people in the UK. |
| 0:26.8 | But, while most of us have returned to pre-pandemic normality, there are teams of scientists |
| 0:34.2 | around the world looking for the disease that could cause the next global health crisis. |
| 0:42.8 | There are several on the horizon that we are watching, but I think if you look back at |
| 0:48.4 | history, every emerging infection event has come as a surprise. And doing everything in their power |
| 0:54.5 | to stop it becoming another pandemic. You're listening to stories of our times, |
| 1:01.9 | from the times and Sunday times. I'm Sean O'Neill. Today, the hunt for disease X. |
| 1:25.2 | I went to the pandemic institute in Liverpool. This is an institute to stop the next pandemic. |
| 1:34.0 | Liverpool's got a really long history of this. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been |
| 1:39.4 | there for about 125 years. And of course, Liverpool's a dark city. So, they used to |
| 1:45.6 | viruses coming into the city, ships being quarantined. So, it's fascinating that, you know, in 2023, |
| 1:53.2 | this is kind of the front line in the battle against the next pandemic. While today Ben Spencer, |
| 1:58.9 | the science editor for the Sunday Times, might be wearing his office uniform of crumpled suit |
| 2:03.9 | and open-necked shirt. His trip to Liverpool involves PPE and a lab coat. |
| 2:12.9 | They've got two big labs, which are different containment levels. So, there's a containment level |
| 2:18.8 | two lab, which is kind of people in lab coats doing their business testing vaccines, etc. But not |
| 2:26.7 | a lot of security. Maybe you've got lab space for maybe 60 scientists in there. And they've got |
| 2:32.1 | the containment level three lab, which is a whole different matter. It's quite small, quite |
| 2:37.0 | contain. And that's where they're really dealing with the dangerous viruses. I was there with the |
| 2:42.8 | scientists, but there was also a safety coordinate to their with us to make sure nothing went wrong. |
... |
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