‘High risk’ of another pandemic with threat of flu jumping from animals to humans ‘a certainty’ warns World Health Organization’s outbreak preparedness tsar [Video]

12:35 EDT 24 May 2024, updated 12:58 EDT 24 May 2024

Europe must be prepared for the ‘high risk’ of a flu pandemic, a World Health Organization (WHO) chief sensationally claimed today.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the UN agency’s acting director for pandemic preparedness, said it was a ‘certainty’ the continent would face the threat of influenza. 

Speaking on a WHO podcast, she argued Covid would not be ‘the last pandemic we will deal with in our lifetimes’.

Instead, an unknown future threat could strike in unprecedented fashion. 

But the respected epidemiologist also admitted coronavirus ‘did not have to be as bad as it was’.