Inside top secret planning for Disease X - to prevent the UK's next Covid

Inside top secret planning for Disease X - to prevent the UK's next Covid

In a high security lab in the shadow of the M25 in Surrey, the arm of a liquid handling robot tracks sideways as it carries dozens of samples of sheep and goat serum to be dipped in test fluid that will show whether the animals are infected with a disease. These robots, and the scientists that work with them, are at the frontline of the UK’s protection against a possible future pandemic caused by “Disease X” – the term for a pathogen not current…