The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has once more led to the realization that humanity is dangerously ill prepared for fighting the threats associated with epidemic outbreaks of infectious diseases. COVID-19 is only the latest in a long list of viral diseases, including SARS, [1] MERS, [2] Zika, [3] Ebola, [4] and Nipah, [5] that emerged as severe threats to public health in the past two decades and that continue to threaten human lives. However, also diseases that have plagued humanity for centuries still present a severe burden. For instance, the 20th century has seen three influenza pandemics with death tolls in the millions [6] and the seasonal flu still kills on average an estimated 389 000 people each year. [7] Furthermore, due to the global rise of antibiotic resistance in the past few decades, bacterial infections have once again become a severe threat to human health. [8] In 2015, about 670 000 patients in the EU alone suffered from infections with antibiotic-resistant strains of eight bacterial pathogens, resulting in 33 000 deaths. [9] The situation in the US is similar, with an estimated 23 000 deaths each year as a direct result of more than 2 million multidrug-resistant infections. [10] In low-and middle-income countries with limited ability to pay for second-line drugs, antibiotic resistance results in even higher mortality rates. In 2010, about 38 000 deaths in Thailand alone were attributed to infections with only five antibiotic-resistant bacteria. [11] In India, it is estimated that about 60 000 neonatal deaths each year result from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. [8] More recently, the worldwide emergence of antifungal resistance has raised grave concerns as well, [12] as invasive fungal infections are responsible for at least 2 million life-threatening