More pandemic are add up , and the UK is lamentably underprepared : that ’s the bleak warning from top scientists as the world uphold to experience the impact of COVID-19 . We ’ve always known that it was not a one - off case , but there is a fear that object lesson are not being memorise and that the next pandemic could be even more annihilative as a upshot .

Writing inThe Independent , Professor Teresa Lambe – who helped develop the Oxford - AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine – warned that we are “ sitting ducks ” until more emphasis is placed on pandemic preparedness : “ construct the infrastructure , investing in the great unwashed and modifying insurance policy to enable adequate pandemic preparedness is an insurance policy well deserving the investment funds . ”

Former primary scientific advisor to the UK government Sir David King was unequivocal in his view . He toldThe Independent , “ We ’re in the same position as we were in 2020 . Nothing has changed … if anything it has got worse . ”

Immunologist and geneticist Sir John Bell recall these persuasion in a separateopinion piece . “ know one pandemic does not reduce the threat of the next or entail that it could n’t happen this year or next , ” he write . “ One affair is vindicated – despite everything we have learned , we are not quick for the next pandemic and have even seen cuts in our wellness security substructure . ”

Recent polling suggest that these worries have filtrate down to the British public too , with aYouGov surveyfinding that most Brits do n’t palpate the administration is taking the threat of future pandemics seriously .

COVID-19was the defective pandemic in hold out memory . As well as the devastating loss of life across the ball – particularly before the ontogenesis ofvaccinesand moretargeted treatmentapproaches – there are millions of people withlong COVID , the full ramifications of which are yet to be unpicked . Beyond the wellness impacts of the computer virus itself , the broader social effects of transmission ascendancy measures likelockdowns , and thestressof live through such a turbulent metre , will stay to be researched and debated .

But COVID-19 was not the first pandemic human beings has ever find , and it certainly wo n’t be the last . The1918 flu pandemicdevastated a domain emerging from the traveling bag of warfare , and standardized H1N1 pains of the influenza virus cause further ( albeit less ruinous ) pandemics in 1977 and 2009 . Under the right circumstance , animal disease likeMarburg computer virus diseaseandavian flucan“spill over”and spread throughout human population . Even aThe Last Of Us - stylefungal pandemicis not beyond the realms of possible action .

Because of this ever - present peril , experts argue , man should learn moral from COVID-19 and endeavor to avoid story repeating itself .

“ What can we learn from COVID-19 and its early spread ? How do former policy reaction compare in different nation ? And what were the reason for the corporate failure to firm - track access to aliveness - saving technologies for the most vulnerable population during this crisis ? ” asks Sir John Bell .

“ We call for to consider the worst - case pandemic scenarios and stimulate free burning political direction and investing from governments , global wellness organisations and diligence into pandemic preparedness . ”

It would be all too easygoing , he compose , to call back of COVID-19 as over and done with – at least for those not still directly living with itsill burden . But in doing so , we take chances a potentially avertable tragedy the next sentence around .

“ The next pandemic could be even more devastating than the last . We must be in a constant res publica of readiness for the next big health crisis – if we do not act now , we will not be forgiven . ”