An article in Forbes magazine by infectious disease specialist Judy Stone, describing the potential of a new pandemic, was published on 12 December.
The question she asked was: how prepared was the world for a new flu-type epidemic?
This week alone, about R121,9 trillion was wiped out from the stock market since 19 February.
Oil headed for its largest collapse since 2008 and many airlines are being forecast to not survive the global impact of Covid-19.
Large initiatives are under way to pinpoint the next viral threats, but experts say it’s too difficult.
The Global Virome Project, started in 2016, estimates that about half a million potentially deadly viruses exist globally and finding them would cost about R58,5 billion. Only 4 400 have been identified. Finding and tagging emerging viruses is a huge job.
Though Ebola and the Zika virus were discovered decades ago, both caught the world unaware.
Since the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, there have been four major flu epidemics. Flu viruses can change from one year to the next.
Experts fear the next flu virus could have the potential to cause the kind of destruction seen in 1918, where the living envied the dead.
- Letter by Farouk Araie from Joburg
