CEPI CEO On Tackling The Next Pandemic Threat, F1 Pit Stop Operational Excellence

CEPI’s CEO Dr Richard Hatchett also spoke about a future of increasingly frequent spillovers - the intersections between humans and animals that result in new viruses emerging in people and at times in animals as seen with the coronavirus moving back into the animal species and potentially evolving further there.

Hatchett emphasized that when pandemic watchers like himself constantly repeat the warnings that the majority of emerging infectious diseases originate from animals, and that another disease X is out there – “we really mean it”.

“This is today's viral reality, and to better defend ourselves against the threat posed by these evermore regular threats, there's no doubt that a ‘one health’ approach is key,” Hatchett said

Hatchett told Scrip that “spillover” events are only becoming more apparent and right now, there are deadly outbreaks of Nipah disease in Bangladesh and Marburg disease in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, both caused by viruses that made a jump from bats into humans. At the same time, there’s an ongoing outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that has prompted fears that this avian virus is coming "ever closer" to being able to spread between people.

“While we don’t know yet what the next Disease X might be, we do know that it’s coming and it is almost certain that closer interactions between animals, birds and humans, happening against the backdrop of climate change which is driving changes in the pattern of these interactions, will be involved in its emergence. So understanding spillover and the forces that precipitate it, is critical,” he stated.

Globally, animal surveillance has been relatively weak and spillovers have continued to emerge, with experts like Julie Gerberding, CEO of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) underscoring the need to better understand the “complicated interface science”.(Also see "Preparing for COVID 2.0: Understanding Animal ‘Spillover’ And Addressing Excessive Nationalism" - Pink Sheet, 14 July, 2022.)

“There's a lot of upstream work that doesn't get attention in the middle of a human health catastrophe. But in the long run it is an area where science could really pay off,” Gerberding said last year at the USA-India Chamber of Commerce annual Biopharma & Healthcare Summit.

Hatchett stressed that access to accurate surveillance data will be key to the success of the 100-days mission, which aims to stop the next outbreak in its tracks before it has the chance to morph into another pandemic. “The world will need to know as quickly as possible when and where a new viral threat is emerging so swift action can be taken to contain it, and vaccine R&D can begin as soon as possible. This means having global early-warning systems built on strong, active and continuous disease surveillance capabilities, especially in viral or zoonotic ‘hotspots’,” he added.

Last year CEPI partnered with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to expand the “SpillOver” database to identify virus families most likely to emerge as the next disease X with pandemic potential. SpillOver is a a viral ranking app that directly compares the risks posed by hundreds of animal and human viruses.

On whether the efforts have the buy in from experts in countries like China where such data may not always be easily accessible, Hatchett said: “I can’t speak for how our partners in China and South Asia regard the methodology that UC Davis is employing but I do know that we are aligned in our concerns about spillover