As the world awaits Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates’ new book which is expected to hit shelves in May, the American business magnate has expressed optimism that coronavirus could be the last global pandemic.
Gates revealed on his blog, GatesNotes, on Tuesday that he took out time to share his thoughts and reasons in the forthcoming literature titled ‘How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.’
The 66-year-old billionaire who recently split from his wife Melinda Gates after 27 years of marriage, has been an advocate for Covid vaccines since the start of the pandemic.
Their foundation, dedicated to ridding the world of diseases such as Polio, Malaria and Ebola, has pledged $2 billion in total since January 2020 to fight the spread of Covid-19.
UK Metro reports that he promised to ‘lay out specific steps’ needed to stop future pandemics, outline lessons we’ve learned from this pandemic and discuss the innovations needed to stop pathogens early and equitably.
‘This is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and COVID has only made it clearer that the world needs to prioritize eliminating pandemics as a threat to humanity,’ Gates wrote.
In the new book, Gates is expected to answer several pressing pandemic-related questions, including why the world didn’t develop vaccines quickly enough and why it’s hard to quickly produce billions of vaccines.
It will also include lessons learned from Gates’ conversations with various pubclic health leaders, including Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the leader of the United Nations Health Agency.
‘The goal of no more pandemics ever is ambitious, but the progress we’ve made over the last two years — including the huge leaps forward we’ve made with vaccines and the knowledge we’ve gained about respiratory illnesses — has already set us on a path to success’
‘No one needs to be convinced that an infectious disease could kill millions of people or shut down the global economy,’ Gates wrote. ‘If we make the right choices and investments, we can make COVID-19 the last pandemic,’ he said.
