Fears that the next pandemic will be worse than the coronavirus (which he even describes as mild compared to others that have hit the planet), he expresses. Associate Professor of the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, clinical virologist Gikas Maiorkinis, in an interview he gave to the Fm agency and Tanya H. Maduwalu’s show “104.9 HEALTH SECRETS”, on the occasion of the recent release of his book Chronicle of Viruses by Papadopoulos.

“Through my book, I’m trying to help people understand what we’ve been through, because I think people haven’t fully understood that this has been going on for millions of years. This will continue and we must be prepared for the next pandemic, which could happen either in two seconds or in 50 years,” says Ghikas Majorkinis.

Regarding the endemicity of the virus, which he actually predicted a year earlier in the same broadcast, and the World Health Organization raised the highest level of health danger just a few days ago, Mr Majorkinis states: “This endemicity has a serious footprint that we are also facing in hospitals and is carried mainly by vulnerable groups who are still exposed to the virus. What has happened is that the virus has come along and added an extra burden to the healthcare system, and we will have to find a way to deal with it for decades to come.”

Abrupt or unpredictable pressures on health systems from the next pandemics

As the professor writes in his book, “The possible emergence of new viruses and new pandemics will place an even greater strain on healthcare systems. The medical and financial burden of viral infections will increase in the coming years. We will face waves of new viral pandemics, as has been happening on the planet for millions of years. There is no reason to believe that this will stop. On the contrary, it is likely that their frequency will increase. Those that manage to permanently gain a foothold in the human population will add to the already existing viral infections and will continue to plague vulnerable and susceptible people, whose number will also constantly increase as the population ages. Technology will help us better cope with their effects, but at times the pressure they will cause will be significant or dramatic, and at times unpredictable.”

There is an urgent need to invest in personnel specialized in viral infections, respiratory diseases and intensive care.

And it is for this reason, Mr. Majorkinis explains to Fm Agency, “We must invest in technology and in human resources specialized in viral infections, respiratory diseases and intensive care, so that we can effectively deal with this long-term burden and the possible next pandemics. However, these investments are time-consuming. It takes more than 11-12 years for each person to specialize, and therefore any gaps that arise cannot be filled in a short period of time or in urgent circumstances. After all, we saw it in this pandemic, when a hospital was built in China in ten days, and staff was transferred from other places to staff it. You can’t recruit staff in ten days. If there is no long-term plan not only to educate people, but also to motivate them to move in this direction, then we are in for some surprises. If we do not make these investments, we will face very big difficulties in the next hundred years.”

There are viruses that caused epidemics that killed 60 to 70% of the population.

Question: Based on the historical evidence of pandemics that you cite in your book, how serious do you consider the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to be, a reasonable question arises.

Answer: “Of the pandemics that we have seen historically, this particular one was in a mild form. Probably, if we were not in that era where there is a large percentage of vulnerable people, it would also pass sluggishly. The pandemics that have appeared on the planet are much more deadly. That is, there are viruses that caused epidemics, from which 60% to 70% of the population died, as, for example, in South America in the 16th and 17th centuries. And we don’t know what these viruses are. This is a terribly gray and scary part of virology, which personally gives me a slightly strange feeling, because although we, for example, knew the profile of smallpox (ss: what virus causes it and how it is transmitted) and that there is a vaccine, for these viruses we even did not know what their profile was and there is no vaccine. And if a bad scenario happens and they come back, we don’t know how easily they’ll be dealt with.”

Epidemics are a permanent part of the ecosystem. They can’t be avoided

Q: History has taught us so far that virus outbreaks are constant, they will happen again and again. The question is not whether we will see another pandemic. The question is when, with what frequency and with what consequences you write in your book. Has the risk of megapandemics disappeared? Do we know what we can do to avoid them?

Answer: “No, the risk of megapandemics, that is, pandemics that can kill more than 10% of those infected, has not disappeared. And it hasn’t disappeared because we can’t control which pathogen will jump from animals to humans next. I’m afraid that because the planet is very dense and there are so many communications, if a pandemic starts in a small village in Africa or China, it could become a problem the next day in Canada. And it will be difficult to control, so as I said, we will have to invest strategically and long term to deal with the next pandemic. I think it will get worse because the profile of this one has been relatively light compared to other pandemics the planet has gone through and I fear it will hit us out of nowhere. For example, hemorrhagic fever can spread very easily, creating huge problems that are also difficult to manage. Epidemics cannot be avoided. This is the eternal game of the ecosystem. Viruses are part of the genomes of animals and humans, and have always been, it cannot be stopped, and we have no way to stop them. The only thing we can do is control the consequences and manage the acute phase better.”

Source: RES-IPE