Bill Gates warns: “We need to prepare for the next pandemic as if we were going to war. The next pandemic will be ten times worse … ”
Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates have warned against “vaccine nationalism” and a “carefree approach” to the pandemic.
In an interview with the German liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, he said it was time for people to accept pandemics as part of normalcy.
“Pandemics belong to the new normal, just like earthquakes, tornadoes, and climate change,” he said in a German translation of his interview.
Gates warned policymakers of the lack of preparedness before Covid-19, despite repeated warnings about the likelihood of a pandemic, and complained of a lack of clear communication about the dangers of the disease.
“It’s terrible that we still have to tell people to make sacrifices” to save lives, he said. “We have to learn our lessons.” He warned that the next pandemic could be “ten times worse than this”, and “we are not prepared for that,” writes The Guardian.
Recognizing that people are under considerable stress and that the feeling of fatigue was “gigantic”, Gates believes that it will take “almost a year” for life to return to normal.
Bill and his wife, Melinda Gates, also hope the coronavirus pandemic will end. “With so many people still suffering from Covid-19 at this time, it’s hard to imagine the end of the pandemic, but it will come.”
Gates said that the lack of cooperation between the countries means a missed chance. “No country can fight the pandemic alone,” he said.