Are we ready to face the next Disease X?

A colourised scanning electron micrograph of a human cell heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (orange/red). Covid-19 was the feared Disease X when it came along, but fortunately, prior preparation to face this unknown threat enabled us to quickly develop vaccines to help counter it. — TNS

It sounds like something Elon Musk might have cooked up: “Disease X”.

In fact, the term was coined years ago as a way of getting scientists to work on medical countermeasures for unknown infectious threats – novel coronaviruses like the one that causes Covid-19, for example – instead of just known ones, like the Ebola virus.