Bill Gates was apparently aware that a pandemic was coming and he knew that we’re not ready for it.
The co-founder of Microsoft who recently announced stepping down from the board of his brainchild talked on several occasions throughout the last decade about something like the new coronavirus.
Bill Gates’s Predictions about the Future
In a 2015 TED Talk, titled The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready, the business magnate and software developer said that if anything will kill more than 10 million people in the next few decades, it will probably be an infectious virus rather than some war.
For Gates, ‘it’s not missiles, but microbes’. Two years after this TED Talk, Gates said the same thing during a Davos event. He also mentioned that it’s surprising to see how little we’re prepared.
Last month, at the AAAS annual meeting in Seattle, Gates said that the effects from the virus could be very dramatic, especially if it spreads in Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Gates also emphasized that this pandemic is a major challenge and that they’ve always known about the potential of a natural or intentional pandemic to destroy economies, health systems, and lead to global deaths.
He emphasized the importance of molecular diagnostic tools as a guard from these outbreaks.
He believes that science is ready to prepare the necessary tools for diagnosis and provide vaccines.
Gates Donates Money for the Fight against the Coronavirus
Through his charity the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the richest people in the world donated $100 million to those at the forefront in the fight against the coronavirus.
Moreover, his foundation is also focused on exploring the idea of supplying homes with testing kits in Seattle- the epicenter of the outbreak in the US. The virus has now spread throughout the country.
They also released a $125 million COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator and donated 5 million dollars as aid for the public health agencies of Seattle.
This is intended to help them strengthen their ability to detect the virus.
Want to check out the TED Talk of Bill Gates from 2015? Press play below:
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