The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus on Saturday, February 17, warned that a possible breakout of a new global pandemic “Disease X” is "a matter of when, not if.”

In a Fox News report, Tedros said that in 2018 he claimed a pandemic would soon hit, which manifested when the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc globally in 2020.

Tedros said in his speech that the aftermath of COVID-19 left painful lessons that could be forgotten “as attention turns to the many other crises confronting” the world.

For Tedros, moving past these lessons without learning from them could lead to dire consequences.

"We will pay dearly next time, and there will be a next time,” he said.

According to New Scientist, “Disease X” was coined by the WHO to “refer to some currently unknown infectious condition that is capable of causing an epidemic or, if it spreads across multiple countries, a pandemic.”