Bill Gates has been warning about a potential pandemic on the horizon for months. According to the co-founder of Microsoft, one government has already devised a strategy for successfully neutralizing it.
Many of the worldwide implications brought by COVID-19 might be avoided if a fresh outbreak is prevented from becoming a pandemic. However, as Gates pointed out, a future breakout will very certainly necessitate considerably harsher measures in the early stages than the global response to COVID-19.
Bill Gates Emphasizes a Way to Prevent Another Pandemic
Governments will have to stick to their policies for an extended length of time, even in the face of popular pressure. The gold standard, according to Gates, is Australia's Covid reaction. For the first time since March 2020, the country's foreign borders were reopened this week.
Returning citizens and authorized international passengers were compelled to quarantine in hotels guarded by police and military personnel during the epidemic. Australia's states have even closed down their borders on occasion.
Thousands of Australians opposed the lockdowns, but they appear to have worked. According to a New York Times report of John Hopkins University data, just 20 per 100,000 Australians have died from COVID-19 since the outbreak began. Based on the data, this is a substantially lower figure than the 283 per 100,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19.
Vaccination rates in Australia are also rather high: according to John Hopkins University research, 81 percent of the country's population is completely immunized against Covid. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just around 65 percent of Americans are completely vaccinated at this time, as per NewYork Times.
Australia did struggle to contain the COVID-19 omicron variant. A hundred and fifty-five people died during omicron's Australian peak on January 28. But omicron has similarly swept through the rest of the world, largely unimpeded - and it appears that Australia's death rate is already stabilizing, with a 7-day average of 38 daily COVID-19-related deaths, as of Feb. 23.
Australia's plan may have been less effective abroad because of its tiny population of approximately 26 million people and the fact that it is an island with no land boundaries. Nonetheless, Gates described it as a "real oddity," according to CNBC.
Read Also : Scientists in China Develop Rice Variant That Can Grow on Salty Soil To Feed 80 Million People More
What Disease Might Become a New Pandemic?
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist, cautioned on Thursday that the world might face another pandemic, most likely caused by a respiratory virus while emphasizing the need for improving diagnostics, therapies, vaccinations, and research and development.
He added in a virtual fireside discussion with Telangana Industries Minister KT Rama Rao as part of 'BioAsia-2022,' the state government's main annual life sciences conference, that the last massive pandemic struck over 100 years ago, but it won't be that long until the next one strikes.
"It won't necessarily be a coronavirus or even the flu. It is likely to be a respiratory virus. Because with all the human travel we have now, that's the one that can spread in such a rapid way," he said. Gates discussed his upcoming book on the topic, as well as the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and the need of investing in the private sector and academics to develop better diagnostics, medicines, and vaccinations.
He underlined the necessity for the world to invest more in research and development. Rama Rao questioned Gates about the likely next great calamity and how mankind might prepare collectively, referring to his 2015 forecast about the next pandemic. In the fight against the epidemic, the wealthy benefactor praised India for its vaccine research and coverage, NDTV reported.
Related Article : Bill Gates Warns About New Pandemic Amid Weakening of COVID-19: "It Will Be a Different Pathogen"
@YouTube
