Experts call it Disease X – the next lethal pandemic that will infect the world. But what will this disease be, and how well (or badly) prepared are we to cope? These questions are currently worrying health experts here and around the world. A recent survey of more than 100 leading infectious-disease scientists into the “state of pandemic preparedness” warned that the next global plague will most likely be an infection that humans have never encountered before. It will likely be caused by a “pathogen that is highly transmissible” for which we have “no tests, treatments or vaccines”, concluded the...