Gates’ warning 5 years ago; forget war – focus on a pandemic

You don't get to be the world's second richest person by failing to consider what any small dark clouds on the horizon might portend. This story outlines what Bill Gates warned global leaders might happen if the SARS and Ebola virus messages were not heeded. Five years ago, he said an infectious disease pandemic posed a greater threat to the world than a nuclear war, because there were so few defences. He urged an international warning-and-response system with mobile units of medical personnel, rapid diagnostics, drug stockpiles and technologies to produce vaccines within months. But as we all know politicians focus on latter-day issues. This story outlines what Gates has done, in dramatic contrast to the conspiracy theorists, whose theme is that he seeks to profit from the Coronavirus. His Foundation is the second-largest funder of the World Health Organisation, after the US. Besides education in third world countries, it focusses on infectious diseases partly because there is little profit for pharmaceutical companies to invest in developing medicines for the underprivileged (compared with cancer and other chronic diseases). To me what speaks most loudly about the man however, is his strongest emotion upon witnessing Covid-19 paralyse the world; regret. He says he simply didn't shout loud enough. Story courtesy of the Wall Street Journal. – Chris Bateman

Bill Gates has regrets

By Betsy McKay

(The Wall Street Journal) – Five years ago, Bill Gates warned that the biggest potential killer the world faced wasn't war, but a pandemic. The billionaire spent hundreds of millions of dollars to find faster ways to develop vaccines and create disease-tracking systems. He urged world leaders to build national defenses against new infectious diseases.

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