question: The Covid-19 pandemic has raised awareness of future biological threats, how we can prepare and develop mitigation strategies. Technology has allowed us to quickly identify the pathogen, map its evolution in real time and develop scores of vaccines within months. This review looks at disease threats from a perspective of human development, and the futuristic technologies that may help in the fight. Most importantly, cooperation across political and ideological boundaries would be needed in a highly inter-connected world. A new disease emerging anywhere is a threat everywhere.