Pandemics have always been a major part of human history, they still dominate our present to some degree, and it would be prudent to prepare for them in the future to avoid the worst case scenario. In fact, that's what public health agencies have been doing for decades, but only in the wake of mass COVID-19 misinformation has routine surveillance of diseases become the fodder of conspiracy theories.
Two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, a committee from the World Health Organization gathered together to update a list of priority pathogens that could cause future pandemics. Initially, the list included names of viruses that are nearly household names — Ebola, SARS-1 and MERS. All of these viruses can be quite deadly.
