The Next Pandemic Could Start in a  Factory, Not a Wet Market 

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Dr Syed Faseeh Hassan, MD, Vice President of PIMSA Internal Affairs and Dr Ahmed Bilal, MD, Vice President, PIMSA-GHWD– Pakistan International Medical Students  Association. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writers’ views and not necessarily The European Sting’s position on the issue.

Dr Syed Faseeh Hassan, MD, Vice President of PIMSA Internal Affairs. Contact:  faseehshah14@gmail.com | Dr Ahmed Bilal, MD, Vice President, PIMSA-GHWD.  Contact ahmeddrsyed@gmail.com . 

When Europeans think about the origins of pandemics, the image that often comes to  mind is a distant wet market or exotic wildlife trade far from the continent’s borders.  This narrative is reassuring but dangerously incomplete. COVID-19 exposed an  uncomfortable reality: some of the most explosive outbreaks occurred not in remote  locations, but inside factories, warehouses, and industrial workplaces that sit at the  core of Europe’s economy and global supply chains. 

From meat-processing plants in Germany and France to logistics hubs in Italy and  manufacturing facilities across the EU, workplaces became major vectors of  transmission. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control  (ECDC), 15 EU/EEA countries and the UK reported 1,376 COVID-19 clusters in  occupational settings between March and July 2020, with factories, food processing,  and manufacturing sites among the most affected. These outbreaks were not  anomalies they were structural failures. 

Factories are uniquely high-risk environments for infectious disease spread. Dense  workstations, limited ventilation, prolonged indoor shifts, and repetitive close-contact  tasks create ideal conditions for airborne pathogens. Many workers, particularly  migrants and subcontracted labour, face precarious employment with limited sick  leave and job security. The result is a system where illness reporting carries financial  risk, and early warning signs are suppressed by economic pressure. 

During the pandemic, Europe saw how quickly these conditions could escalate. In  France, surveillance of a single meat-processing facility between March and September 

2020 recorded 859 occupational COVID-19 cases, including a cluster of 140 infections  at one site. Similar patterns were observed across Europe, where essential production  continued even as infections surged, prioritising output over prevention. 

What made these outbreaks especially dangerous was not just biology, but economics.  Many European industries rely on just-in-time production models that leave little  margin for precaution. Workers are expected to show up unless severely ill, and  facilities operate at full capacity to avoid costly disruptions. In a pandemic, efficiency  becomes fragility. 

These risks extend far beyond Europe’s borders. The EU is deeply embedded in global  supply chains, sourcing textiles, electronics, and industrial components from labour intensive factories in South Asia, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Weak occupational  health standards in supplier countries are not distant problems they are upstream  threats to European health security. A pathogen emerging in a poorly ventilated factory  thousands of kilometres away can reach European cities faster than border screening  measures can respond. 

Yet, despite these lessons, occupational health remains marginal in pandemic  preparedness planning. National strategies still focus on hospitals, pharmaceuticals,  and travel controls, while workplace transmission is treated as a secondary issue. This  is a dangerous oversight. 

According to WHO Europe, poor working conditions contribute to approximately  300,000 work-related deaths annually across the region, with economic losses  estimated at around 4% of GDP. Respiratory diseases play a major role: occupational  exposures such as dust, fumes, and chemicals are estimated to contribute to around  10% of chronic respiratory deaths in the EU. These underlying vulnerabilities weaken  population resilience long before a novel pathogen emerges. 

Preparedness, therefore, cannot be separated from how and where people work. 

If Europe wants to prevent the next pandemic from starting on a factory floor, several  shifts are urgently needed.

First, workplaces must be recognised as frontline surveillance zones. Early detection  systems should extend beyond hospitals into large workplaces, using anonymised  symptom reporting, routine health monitoring, and rapid response protocols. Digital  tools already exist to enable this without compromising privacy. 

Second, worker protections must be reframed as public health tools. Paid sick leave,  income protection, and secure employment conditions are not social luxuries they are  essential defences against uncontrolled transmission. Workers who fear income loss  will continue working while ill, undermining even the most sophisticated containment  strategies. 

Third, ventilation and indoor air quality must be treated as critical infrastructure.  Scientific consensus now recognises airborne transmission as a primary route for  respiratory viruses. Yet ventilation standards across industrial workplaces remain  uneven. Clean air should be regulated with the same seriousness as fire safety or  chemical exposure. 

Finally, pandemic governance must move beyond health ministries alone. Labour  inspectorates, occupational safety agencies, employers, and trade unions must be  formally integrated into preparedness planning. Health security is no longer just about  pathogens it is about Health security is no longer just about pathogens it is about  incentives, power structures, and workplace realities. 

The next pandemic will not announce itself at an airport checkpoint. It may begin  quietly during a night shift, under fluorescent lights, amid the hum of machinery. If  Europe continues to look for threats only at its borders or in distant geographies, it risks  missing the dangers embedded within its own economic systems. 

Pandemics are not solely biological events. They are failures of preparedness,  protection, and political imagination. Until factories and workplaces are treated as part  of the public health frontline, Europe will remain more vulnerable than it is willing to  admit. 

The next pandemic may not come from the wild. It may clock in for work every morning.