Microsoft founder Bill Gates has warned that there is a 50% chance of a pandemic in the next 20 years.
In an interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun on the 27th, Gates said, “There is a possibility that a pandemic will occur in any country. When compared to a fire, it can devour the world if it is not extinguished early.” A pandemic refers to the stage of a global pandemic, such as COVID-19.
Gates has been advocating for the development and dissemination of vaccines, warning of a global pandemic of infectious diseases even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with his ex-wife Melinda, he founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to curb infectious diseases and eradicate poverty.
Due to this, Gates has been misunderstood by Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as “intentionally spreading an infectious disease to sell vaccines” or “manipulating people by implanting nanochips with their brains through vaccines.” Gates has denied these rumors several times.
In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Gates emphasized early containment of the possibility of an outbreak of an infectious disease in the future, saying, “It is a new disease that originated in China or Africa, and should not be watched quietly, but should evolve at the stage of occurrence.”
He compared the ‘Global Infectious Disease Response and Mobilization Team’ (GERM) he proposed to ‘a fire brigade and said, “It requires a little more than $1 billion a year (about 1.29 trillion won), but the $14 trillion the world suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic. It would not be a huge amount if the loss of (about 1,800 trillion won) could be avoided.”
He continued, “If we suppress infectious diseases in poor countries, rich countries can also benefit. But the rich countries monopolized it,” he criticized. In order to contain an infectious disease pandemic, coexistence between countries is required, but in the end, the canteens of countries with a lot of capital failed to stop the spread.