Bill Gates has unsettling warning about future of pandemics

If there is one thing the world learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that hindsight is 20/20.

When the pandemic first began, footage of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates emerged where he warned people about the unpreparedness for a worldwide pandemic years before Covid.

Now, knowing what we know, it may be wise to consider Gates’ words, especially when it comes to his warning about future pandemics.

In a conversation with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, Gates said the risk of a pandemic is heightened when countries do not work together.

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“We need to be doing, every five years, a really comprehensive exercise, at both country and regional levels of pandemic preparedness," Gates said, before warning that countries which don't take the threat seriously could be the source of the next pandemic that ravages the globe.

"You need a Global Group that's kind of scoring everybody and saying ‘hey, if you’re not participating in this you could be the source of the next pandemic’."

He explained that “pervasive” modern travel makes the likelihood of viruses spreading higher than decades ago which means the world needs to work together to prevent mass outbreaks.

Reflecting on the Covid-19 pandemic, Gates said he doesn’t think any country “got an A” in pandemic response but cited a few countries that made good decisions.

“Australia and about seven other countries did population scale diagnostics early on and had quarantine policies,” the Microsoft co-founder said.

He attributes these policies to a relatively low level of infection to not overwhelm hospitals, unlike the US.

He praised the US government funding vaccine research which “accelerated the availability” of vaccines and potentially cut the death rate by “about 70 per cent.”

Gates said in the future, world leaders need to join forces to help prevent pandemics because “it’s very hard to make policies towards a pandemic in the middle of it.”

Gates wrote a book How to Prevent the Next Pandemic last year that outlines the steps the world needs to take to prevent another pandemic like Covid-19.

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