The American billionaire, Bill Gates, warned that the next epidemic that the world will witness may result in a much higher death rate, in the event that it exceeds the deaths of “Corona”, which may “end society”, as he put it.
And he indicated during his speech at the American “Time” magazine summit, entitled “Time 100”, last Tuesday, that “the chance of another pandemic occurring in the next 20 years, whether it is natural or deliberate, I think, is more than 50 percent.” .
In his speech, the founder of Microsoft Software also considered that “Covid-19” gave humanity an opportunity to prepare for future epidemics, especially those that could destabilize society.
The scientist called for the creation of a global team of about 3,000 infectious disease experts, with the aim of helping all countries improve their epidemiological responses, and providing local scientists with the means to report outbreaks.
Bill Gates called the global team the “global response to epidemics and mobilization” team, which will be managed by the World Health Organization, noting that among its main responsibilities is to conduct outbreak training for countries to test their preparedness.
Justifying his proposal to create the global team, he said, “You can’t do much if you don’t act quickly, as epidemics are a global problem, and if one country does not do its part in practicing detection and containment, this is a problem for all other countries.”
Speaking at the Time 100 Summit, Bill Gates also mentioned some of the actions that health experts around the world have called for since the start of the pandemic, which is to upgrade health technology such as vaccines and treatments, build health systems, and better monitor diseases around the world.
Gates estimated that “all this will cost about one billion dollars annually, but he described that this cost is small compared to the outcome that a pandemic such as the emerging “Corona” virus may cause in the world.”
“We’ve lost more than $14 trillion so far because of this pandemic, and there will be benefits even in non-pandemic years looking at outbreaks, and containing them in a much better way,” he said.
Gates also criticized the initial American response to the “Corona” epidemic, noting that the administration of former US President Donald Trump could have prevented needless death, by imposing quarantine under the supervision of medical supervision.