Pathogen X
The next global pandemic is imminent. We don’t know which bacteria or viruses will trigger it. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the close connections between people, how our lives are interwoven. Contact, connection, distance – everything takes on a new meaning. The micro-world of bacteria and viruses influences everything in our macro-world and has shaped human evolution and history in an immense and holistic way.
The last pandemic has brought to light many global inequalities, including access to healthcare, workers‘ rights, long-term consequences and climate impacts in a globalised world. Life has returned to a new normality and yet these inequalities persist. While we can fight more pathogens than ever before, the dark legend of colonialism hovers over this progress. Medical research, which was driven by the exploitation of oppressed peoples, is denied to those same peoples.
The project Pathogen X poses the question of whether we will be able to solve any of these problems in our current political climate before the next pandemic arrives?
