Last updated on September 17th, 2023 at 03:43 pm
Just when we thought the corona virus was almost over and life was returning to normal after two years of pandemic, the co-founder of Microsoft gave the world a new warning. Bill Gates has warned that there could still be a variant “penetrating even faster and even more lethal” than the Omicron and Delta variants.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Gates said, “We haven’t seen the most dangerous of it yet.”
The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist explained that he does not want to be a “voice of gloom and doom”, but that the risk of a more virulent version emerging is “above 5% (percentage).”
“We are still at risk of creating a version of this coronavirus pandemic that will be even more contagious and even more rapid lethal,” Gates said. He also cautioned that to deal with the upcoming pandemic there is an urgent need for long lasting vaccines which are helpful in preventing the infection.
Gates called for a team of all international experts, including epidemiologists and computer modellers, to identify threats and improve international coordination.
He is also calling for a global pandemic response team, managed by WHO, to make additional investments to tackle the situation much earlier. “It just seems absurd to me that we can fail to see this tragedy happen and not make these investments on behalf of the citizens of the world,” the billionaire said.
Gates has been warning about the epidemic for the past several years. During a TED talk in 2015, he spoke about the threat of super-virus. Gates has also authored a book called “How to Prevent the Next Epidemic”, which talks about the lessons learned from the pandemic and how to prevent the next one.
