Monkeypox, bird flu, hantavirus, Ebola, “Disease X,” Marburg, Nipah virus and now pneumonic plague.

Monkeypox, bird flu, hantavirus, Ebola, “Disease X,” Marburg, Nipah virus and now pneumonic plague. There is a recurring pattern: alarming headlines, emergency declarations, predictions of widespread transmission, VX discussions and renewed calls for pandemic preparedness. Dr. David Drew Pinsky summarizes the skepticism this has created: “They’re staging for another one. It’s as though any little virus. They tried to do it with monkeypox.” This raises an important question about context. In the section on Nipah virus, Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, an epidemiologist, notes that outbreaks have occurred repeatedly in Bangladesh and India for decades, arguing that media coverage can make a recurring regional outbreak appear like an entirely new global threat.