Bill Gates: Danger to a more contagious and deadly COVID-19 mutation

The need to create a team of international experts, from epidemiologists to computer model makers, to quickly identify global health threats and improve coordination between countries, Bill Gates said in an interview with the Financial Times, warning that more investment is needed. avoiding a new pandemic

The founder of Microsoft, who in 2015 first publicly warned that the world is not ready for the inevitable next pandemic, said that the Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization initiative should be administered by the World Health Organization.

As the war in Ukraine dominates the international agenda, Gates urged world leaders not to lose sight of the health crisis. He called for greater investment in preventing future pandemics.

“We are still at risk of this pandemic creating a variant that will be even more contagious and even more deadly,” he said. “It’s not possible, I do not want to be the voice of condemnation and gloom, but the risk of this pandemic is well over 5%, we have not seen the worst.”

This is not the first time Gates has made such an assessment. He has stressed many times in the past the need to step up prevention for the next pandemic, reiterating that based on current data, we will not be ready for it.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in a report released in September 2021 called on nations to invest more in health systems, including the possibility of producing vaccines. Vaccines to end the pandemic are largely the same as those used to fight other infectious diseases, the report said.

Gates had argued that proper preparedness would include the ability to make a vaccine in 100 days and produce several vaccines for the whole world in the next 100 days.

However, he himself had set in the goals for 2022 “the coronavirus to be the last pandemic”.