I feel sad and frustrated because the warning I issued in Medica 2006 about the mystery virus “SARS-CoV-2” was ignored. The memory of this minor pandemic and the systemic failures observed during the COVID-19 crisis still linger. The documents reinforce many of the concerns you expressed, particularly about institutional unpreparedness, the lack of a timely response, and the looming threat posed by untreatable infections. What follows is likely to be 20-30 times worse and difficult to contain.

I have shared numerous articles and sources and used AI to outline compelling reasons why immediate preparation is crucial, emphasising the need for robust systems and decentralised tools to handle a future crisis involving both novel viruses and widespread drug resistance.

Tsunami of Infections

 The documents describe a looming catastrophe that closely aligns with your warning of a "tsunami of infections". This threat stems from the inevitable collision of novel pandemic pathogens with the escalating crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

• The Severity of Future Viral Threats: Experts warn that future pandemics could be "far worse" than COVID-19. One concept discussed is "Disease X," an unknown bug that could be 20 times more deadly than COVID-19. Scientists estimate the risk of another pandemic of equal severity to COVID-19 occurring in the next 10 years is about 25%.
• The Rise of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): AMR is described as an urgent global public health threat and an "invisible crisis". Antimicrobial-resistant infections caused an estimated 1.27 million deaths directly in 2019 globally and contributed to nearly 5 million deaths. If current trends continue, AMR could claim 10 million lives annually by 2050, exceeding the number of annual deaths caused by cancer today.
• The Catastrophic Scenario: The sources detail how a severe viral pandemic (like Disease X) would intersect with AMR, making COVID-19 look like a "dress rehearsal".
• Patients fighting a viral infection often require intensive hospital monitoring and invasive procedures (such as ventilation).
• These patients frequently become colonised with multidrug-resistant bacteria (superbugs) that live in hospitals, such as Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and the multidrug-resistant fungus Candida auris.
• Historically, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, most deaths were due to secondary bacterial pneumonia because there were no antibiotics; today, the same is true because antibiotics no longer work.
• In the post-antibiotic era, trivial injuries, such as a scraped knee or a small cut, become "Russian roulette" because the resulting infection may not respond to the first or second antibiotic, leading quickly to untreatable sepsis and potential death.

Why Preparation is Essential for Resilience and Survival

The analysis in the sources firmly endorses the importance of resilience-focused preparation, as many systems failed or proved unreliable during the last crisis.

• The Breakdown of Institutional Trust and Infrastructure

During COVID-19, the world was "caught unaware". The crisis exposed significant failures, including wasted time and money, and inadequate or reactionary response mechanisms.

• Failure of Command and Communication: Although some whole-of-government approaches functioned well, the roles and responsibilities of each agency lacked clarity, and mechanisms for close coordination were not always established. Effective risk communication was also absent, creating room for misinformation and distrust.
• The Peril of Disinformation: Disinformation—the deliberate spreading of falsehoods—remains a major threat that the scientific community continues to grapple with. A lack of public trust weakens the effectiveness of public health policies.
• Hospitals as Death Traps: When a severe pandemic strikes, hospitals, which should be centres of healing, risk becoming "colonisation zones" for resistant organisms. Hospitals may turn into "ghost towns"—not shut, but avoided because the danger of catching an untreatable hospital infection outweighs the risk of the original illness. 

2. Protecting the Capable via Decentralised Solutions

In the event of a severe, rapidly spreading crisis, traditional healthcare infrastructure will be overwhelmed, resulting in widespread inaccessibility of care. Preparedness is essential because doctors will be unreachable, and people will be confused about how to manage symptoms.

The sources emphasise the importance of innovative, decentralised tools like the Dr Maya GPT system (MAYA: Medical Advice You Access), developed by Dr Kadiyali Srivatsa (Dr Sri). This method is seen as a vital "survival infrastructure" to democratise medical knowledge and empower individuals in a future affected by pandemics and antibiotic resistance.

• Individual Triage and Self-Isolation: Dr Maya GPT's main function is to offer quick guidance when a doctor is not available. It employs colour-coded symptom lists to help individuals rapidly assess the likelihood of an infectious illness and advise on isolation to prevent the spread of disease, which is vital for managing epidemics.
• Reducing System Strain: The tool aims to prevent unnecessary hospital visits, thereby reducing transmission, freeing up limited resources, and protecting people from hospital-acquired infections (including AMR).
• Early Detection for Life-Saving Action: The system identifies urgent "red flags" (e.g., sepsis, respiratory distress) and advises immediate emergency care, serving as the "first doctor" billions of people may access when systems collapse.

By providing individuals with such accurate, immediate, and accessible guidance, the system supports those capable of taking control of their wellness and ensuring timely isolation or appropriate care pathways. This approach moves away from a culture of dependency on the healthcare profession.

Key Actions for Comprehensive Preparedness

To safeguard populations ahead of this predicted "tsunami of infections," the sources suggest shifting from a reactive to a proactive "100 Days Mission" approach. This involves being prepared for "War when not at War."

Essential preparedness actions drawn from the documents include:

Sustained Investment in Research (The Long Game): R&D must take a forward-looking approach, rather than reacting to outbreaks. There is an urgent need to allocate a High-Risk Innovation Research and Development Fund and to establish an Institute of Innovation for New Platform technologies and Centres of Excellence for research on priority pathogens. This includes developing countermeasures, such as broad-spectrum antibiotics and vaccine candidate libraries, in advance. 

Robust Surveillance and Data Integration: It is essential to build a resilient surveillance network that effortlessly connects epidemiological, genomic, and clinical data from human, animal, and environmental sources. This will enable the prompt detection of emerging and novel pathogens and their correlation with epidemiological trends.

Infection Prevention and Control: Considering the growing threat of AMR, it is essential to prioritise preventive measures. This involves promoting good practices, such as proper hand hygiene (WASH procedures), in healthcare and community settings, which reduces the need for antibiotics and the selection pressure for resistance. There is also a call to reinforce hospital infection control measures against multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), which can spread easily within healthcare facilities.

Strengthening Manufacturing and Supply Chains: Preparation should ensure mechanisms for scaling up industry capacity, establishing strong forward and backward linkages to reduce reliance on imported raw materials for countermeasures. This helps prevent shortages and hoarding behaviours observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These coordinated measures—from advanced scientific investment to individual empowerment through accessible triage tools—are presented as the vital path to build resilience against a future health crisis predicted to be far worse than the last.

That is a crucial question. Understanding the underlying drivers of disease emergence—both for novel viral pandemics and for the rise of untreatable superbugs—is essential for effective preparedness, which aligns with your focus on proactive survival strategies.

The sources identify several interconnected biological, environmental, social, and human-activity factors that drive the emergence of new infectious diseases and the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).