A Scientist’s Apocalyptic Warning: “3.5 Billion People could Die”

After infecting 103 million people and cause the death of more than two million, the COVID-19 has caused panic in the world, which has been paralyzed to try to combat it. However, this might be nothing compared to what awaits us. At the beginning of his book ‘Viral: The story of Humanity’s Eternal Struggle against Viruses’, the Spanish neurologist and writer Juan Fueyo makes a prediction that is not encouraging: “Our generation may well suffer an apocalypse and a virus may kill 3.5 billion people in the next ten years”.

To support his theory, the expert recalled on ‘laSexta Noche’ that “500 million were infected at the beginning of the 20th century with the Spanish flu and population of that time was four times less”. Furthermore, at present “there is a lot of overcrowding in cities and that is the big problem, globalization“, he pointed.

In this sense, Fueyo warns of danger that entails “The man’s approach to Wild Viruses”. You just have to keep in mind what has happened with the coronavirus: “Keep in mind that now a duck infected by a virus in Thailand is a danger for Chamberi or any neighborhood in Spain in a few hours. And if one does not believe this, look at the one who has put together a virus infecting a bat in a city of China of which we had never heard of ”.

Much deadlier pandemic

In this way, the expert suspects that the pandemic that may arrive in a few years may be much “more deadly” than the current one. Highlights that the coronavirus barely infected the children, it “has respected young people a lot”, while the smallpox virus was primed with them. Therefore, he predicted that “if a smallpox virus arrives that is more lethal and has the characteristic of infecting larger parts of the population, it will be much more serious”.

Fueyo is aware that his words can cause alarm. What’s more, consider that “You have to fear and be aware”. “Now we are in one of the major peaks of the pandemic and we must learn from this, produce changes in the Government and institutions and one way to do it is with drastic predictions, but what are they data-driven” he added.

Message to politicians

Despite residing in the United States, Fueyo is a native of Asturias, a community that “has done very well” in regards to managing the pandemic. However, he asked politicians to “forget about politicizing things that are not ‘politicizable’, like masks or confinements.” “The opposition and the government have to work together and one of the most important things that must be done is to create a pandemic commission, perhaps not in Spain, although it should have a section, but in the European Union” he continued. Along these lines, he recalled that in the US “Obama created it and later Trump eliminated it.”

“We need a pandemic attack plan like the one we have to prevent nuclear weapons attacks. We need maneuvers to be made, instead of military, with pandemics. That once a virus is discovered it is known in which laboratories the red light is fired, who prepares the tests, who is going to do the vaccine or who is in charge of regulating confinements worldwide” he concluded.