Could bird flu be the next COVID-19? Why experts are warning Britain of ‘sleepwalking’ into a new pandemic

A woman in China has become the first person to die from a type of bird flu that is rare in humans. Some experts warn that the world could be 'sleepwalking' into a new pandemic. Professor Neil Ferguson, director of the Jameel Institute at Imperial College London, the researcher whose modelling was instrumental to informing policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, is said to be working on a COVID-style model for a bird flu pandemic following warnings from the World Health Organisation that it poses the biggest pandemic threat to the world after COVID-19. Neil's work on improving resilience in the face of future pandemic threats coincides with the aims of the Jameel Institute-Kenneth C Griffin Initiative for the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness, launched in 2022.