Bill Gates Says Another Pandemic May Hit World in 20 years, Calls For Preventive Measures

Washington: Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who has launched a new book ‘How to Prevent the Next Pandemic’ about the measures that countries must take to prevent another global outbreak, on Friday said another pandemic is likely in the next 20 years. However, he urged the world leaders to prepare to avoid such a situation.Also Read – Bill Gates Has Doubts About Elon Musk’s Twitter Buy, Says He ‘Actually Could Make It Worse’

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, the philanthropist said the world will not go another 100 years without a pandemic. However, he stated that world leaders need to stop an outbreak before it spreads globally, or at the very least limit the number of deaths, as some of the best countries did this time. Also Read – Over 4 Million Covid Deaths Went Unreported In India? Why WHO’s Claim Raises Question On The Real Tally

“People travel more, we are invading natural habitat, it is very likely that in the next 20 years we will have another pandemic. We need to have that readiness so that every country can stop the outbreak before it goes global or at least limit the deaths like the very best countries did this time around,” Bill Gates was quoted as saying by CNBC-TV18. Also Read – At 4.7 Million, India’s Covid-19 Toll Highest in The World, Claims WHO; Govt Says ‘Data Scientifically Questionable’

Expressing concern over current happenings around the world, Bill Gates said events such as the Russia-Ukraine war could divert attention, perpetuating the cycle of underinvestment in health.

It must be noted that Bill Gates had in 2014 warned of a pandemic and had said in 2020, the world will be hit by COVID, which is still impacting lives.

He went on to say that people want to forget the pandemic. “Even though we have some concerns about variants, it is likely that the worst of it is well behind us,” he said.

Talking about the preventive measures, the billionaire philanthropist proposed setting up a new body, Global Epidemic Response Mobilisation (GERM) team, managed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

He said there should be a team to be accountable to the public and estimated investment of $1 billion would be required from governments to cover “salaries for a GERM force of 3,000 people, equipment, travel, and other expenses”.

“A billion dollars is a small price to have that team. The team can do some good work even when there is no pandemic. Many people did assume that WHO had something like that,” Gates told the news channel.