Top Hong Kong scientist sounds alarm on next pandemic
Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung has battled some of the world's worst threats, including the SARS virus he helped isolate and identify. The scientist warns that another pandemic is not only inevitable but it could exact damage far worse than Covid-19, he tells AFP at the city's Queen Mary Hospital, where he works and teaches.
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00:00I mean I always think that my writing is very clear already, but there's this...
00:10There's a finding, a broken mechanical label. We can find this one, we can find one, one, two, three, four, five, six.
00:22Why I make such a horrifying prediction?
00:27It's because you can see clearly that the geopolitical, economic and climatic changes are changing so rapidly.
00:38And while at the same time everyone is still focusing on their national or regional interest.
00:52So, Siu-Fung, tell me about what happened.
01:05The upper estimate is 100 million deaths in 1918. This time it may be 400 million people died.
01:13That is a really horrendous number and I hope that governments will really take on these challenges.
01:24So I still think that at this stage in time it's important to properly do an investigation in a very open, transparent manner
01:35so that you learn the lessons, so that you know what to do next.
01:43It's like taking steps on a stair. You know where you're going and...