«They attacked humanity»: virologist assesses the risk of a new dangerous COVID-19 pandemic

He emphasizes that large-scale pandemics are rare phenomena, separated by decades. At the same time, Altshtein acknowledged the possibility of a new global outbreak similar to COVID-19 but warned that the probability of such a scenario is very low.

"A new coronavirus pandemic is quite possible, but the likelihood is not that high. Usually, many decades pass when one virus invades and causes something like a pandemic, and then the interval until the next pandemic is typically quite long. That is, these are not frequent occurrences. Therefore, thinking that a new coronavirus will cause a pandemic is somewhat of an exaggeration," the expert believes. Altshtein shared his opinion in an interview with NEWS.ru.

According to the scientist, the greatest threats are posed by avian flu viruses and coronaviruses originating from animals, particularly bats. Although such viruses can be transmitted to humans, this does not always lead to a global outbreak. Altshtein reminded that coronaviruses have already "attacked" humanity several times, and we know of seven such viruses. The virologist does not rule out new attempts but stresses that it is premature to panic.

"You remember the last pandemic, and before that, coronaviruses launched attacks on humanity four more times and spread widely. We now know of seven coronaviruses that have attacked humanity. It is quite possible that there may be further attempts. In principle, if a new pandemic occurs, we expect it mainly from two groups of viruses. These are avian flu viruses and animal coronaviruses," Altshtein concluded.

Recently, American scientists discovered a new coronavirus, HKU5-CoV-2, in bats in China. It is known that this variant of the virus could pose a potential threat to humans. American journalists claim that the pathogen isolated from samples of Chinese bats is just one mutation away from being able to transmit to humans.