The world is on the verge of the emergence of a new strain with pandemic potential, said Gennady Onishchenko, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, deputy head of the Russian Academy of Education.
According to him, strains of viruses that lead to increased morbidity and a severe course of the disease, and can later cause a pandemic, appear approximately every ten years.
"We are living on the threshold of the emergence of such a strain," Onishchenko said.
Earlier, he suggested that the likely cause of the new pandemic would be influenza.
Earlier, experts from the Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Council noted in their report that there is a risk of a new pandemic in the world, since outbreaks of infectious diseases are occurring more often, and the damage they cause is increasing.
Scientists have said that improvements in pandemic preparedness are being offset by the growing impact of deepening geopolitical fragmentation and environmental shocks. They also say the world is “falling behind” in indicators such as access to diagnostics, vaccines and medicines.
The previous coronavirus pandemic was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 and was expected to last until May 2023.
