What is Disease X?

Why are some folks already refusing a vaccine for Disease X?

The usual suspects…

What is Disease X?

First things first though.

Before you refuse a vaccine for Disease X, shouldn’t you what it actually is?

“Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease, and so the R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown “Disease X” as far as possible.”

2018 Annual review of diseases prioritized under the Research and Development Blueprint

Wait…

So “Disease X” is an unknown disease that is caused by an unknown pathogen?

How could we already have a vaccine to protect us against it then?

Well, of course, we don’t!

“Disease X is a placeholder concept that refers to a pandemic pathogen that has not yet been characterized. Its purpose is to encourage proactive thinking about pathogens that could cause a pandemic. It represents a way to push people’s thinking forward so that they’re not wedded to lists of prior pandemic pathogens, like influenza.”

Amesh Adalja, MD on Defining Disease X

All of the talk about Disease X is simply about getting prepared for the next big public health emergency or pandemic.

Preparation that just might help prevent it!

Preparation that will help us make a safe and effective vaccine much more quickly than if if we sat around doing nothing and simply waiting for a disease to hit us.

Refusing the Disease X Vaccine

But why would you refuse to take a vaccine if you don’t even know how bad the disease might be and you don’t even know anything about the vaccine?

It’s simple.

These folks are against all vaccines.

Which is a good reason that you shouldn’t listen to their advice that puts your family at risk.

More on Preparing for Disease X

• Ask 8 Questions Before You Skip a Vaccine
• The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
• What Are the Greatest Tricks Anti-Vaccine Folks Use to Persuade Parents to Skip Vaccines?
• 50 Ways to Get Educated About Vaccines
• WHO – 2018 Annual review of diseases prioritized under the Research and Development Blueprint
• WHO – Research response to pathogen X during a pandemic
• Defining Disease X
• DISEASE X – What it is, and what it is not
• Delivering Pandemic Vaccines in 100 Days
• Posts Misrepresent WHO Term ‘Disease X’ for Possible Future Illness
• Fact Check: Measles outbreaks not linked to ‘Disease X’ pandemic planning
• ‘Bizarre’ Disease X conspiracy is ‘beyond all sense’
• Conspiracy theorists falsely claim ‘Disease X’ is the next ‘plandemic’