The World Health Organization has hit the panic button about a disease that doesn’t even exist yet. The WHO has added the so-called “Disease X” to its list of 9 deadly diseases including Ebola, MERS and Zika.
According to the NY Post, the WHO made the announcement at a committee of experts in viruses, bacteria and infectious diseases that convened recently to consider potential epidemics and pandemics that don’t exist yet.
The WHO added to the confusion by claiming Disease X is a “known unknown” that could be created in a lab somewhere.
“Disease X” is not a newly identified killer pathogen. It’s a so called “known unknown” — that could be created by biological mutation, such as previous deadly epidemics such as Spanish Flu or HIV. Or it might be spawned by a terror attack, or simply an accident.
In other words, Disease X (which doesn’t exist) could be the world’s deadliest biological weapon if or when it is spawned in a Petri dish.
Until then, there is nothing to see here.
“Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown,” the organization insists.
The WHO swears it is not trying to cause unnecessary panic, the organization claims they want public officials to be prepared in case a biological weapon does run amok.
Biological weapons such as nerve agents are already being used by the Russians and North Koreans to kill people they don’t like.
Just last week, a former Russian spy was killed and his daughter was hospitalized when someone attacked them with nerve agent after they left a restaurant in England.
But the WHO claims Disease X would be deadly on a massive global pandemic scale, not just to be used in targeted isolated attacks against self-exiled individuals.
This has been your Medical Minute.
Photo by D-Keine / Getty Images
