Microsoft founder, philanthropist and billionaire, Bill Gates believes that the “worst of the pandemic” is not over. He warned that that there is an above five percent risk that the world has not seen the worst that COVID-19 could bring. He said that although he didn’t want to sound “doom and gloom” there was a possibility that an “even more transmissive and even more fatal” variant of the coronavirus could emerge.
On Saturday, Bill Gates told the Financial Times that international experts should form a team to identify global health threats so that they could coordinate between countries. He noted that the team should consist of epidemiologists, computer modelers and others.
He proposed that a Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization(GERM) initiative should be formed that would be managed by the World Health Organization (WHO). He wanted world leaders not to lose sight of a health crisis, as other issues including the war in Ukraine dominate international agendas.
Gates told the Financial Times, “It seems wild to me that we could fail to look at this tragedy and not, on behalf of the citizens of the world, make these investments.” He believed that the WHO was the only international organization that could manage a world class GERM team. He estimated that it would cost about a billion a year to run the initiative. He also mentioned that the WHO now had “less than 10 full time people” to monitor outbreaks.
He told the FT that the amount of money that would be involved was very small when compared to its benefit and call it a test. He questioned, “can global institutions taken on new responsibilities in an excellent way, even in a time period where US-China [relations are] tough, US-Russia is extremely tough?”
Bill Gates spoke to the outlet, before the release of his book “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.”
In December 2021, the tech mogul had told millions of his followers on Twitter that the pandemic would become worse. Earlier in 2015, Bill Gates had said that the world was ill prepared for a pandemic.
Approximately 6.2 million people around the world have have died due to a COVID-19 infection, since late January 2020. This was before the WHO said that COVID-19 was a global health emergency.
(Photo/Credit Frederic Legrand – COMEO )
