Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases (EID).
Launch of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI in 2017 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Jeremy Farrar, co-author of the concept of CEPI, and board member
Richard J. Hatchett, CEO of CEPI from 2017
TEM of Lassa virions
Disease X is a placeholder name that was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2018 on their shortlist of blueprint priority diseases to represent a hypothetical, unknown pathogen that could cause a future epidemic. The WHO adopted the placeholder name to ensure that their planning was sufficiently flexible to adapt to an unknown pathogen. Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci stated that the concept of Disease X would encourage WHO projects to focus their research efforts on entire classes of viruses, instead of just individual strains, thus improving WHO capability to respond to unforeseen strains. In 2020, experts, including some of the WHO's own expert advisors, speculated that COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain, met the requirements to be the first Disease X.
Colored Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of SARS-CoV-2, speculated in 2020 as being the first virus to create Disease X
Jeremy Farrar, Chair of the WHO R&D Blueprint Scientific Advisory Group
Marion Koopmans, member of the WHO R&D Blueprint Special Advisory Group