After conquering the world of information technology, the legendary software developer and the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation decided to contribute his little quota to the development and betterment of the world. He set up the largest private foundation in the world - the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation some 20 years ago. He has been globally focusing on the enhancement of healthcare, reducing extreme poverty, promoting formal education and access to information technology.
It's worthy of note that Bill Gates raised an alarm about the current disease outbreak the world is experiencing about 5 years ago specifically in March 2015 while delivering a speech at the TEDx program. He fantastically argued that the greatest risk of global catastrophe isn't a nuclear war but a disease outbreak as he showed the image of an Influenza Virus on the projector screen. He added that if anything kills about 10 million people across the world in the next decades, it will most likely be a "very infectious virus" and not a war with microbes doing greater damage than missiles.
The 64-year old investor and philanthropist further explained that countries of the world have invested more financial resources into creating military weapons while lesser attention has been given to medical research to avoid the next epidemic. He expressly said that the world isn't ready for the next epidemic. Using the Ebola outbreak as a case study, he faulted the capability of the world to handle another contagion. He said the world didn't have a group of epidemiologists and other trained workers ready to visit the region of the outbreak to examine it, ascertain how far it spreads, study treatment approaches, diagnostics, and tools to be used in tackling the disease. He attributed this to what he regards as a global failure.
He predicted that the failure of the world to prepare against infectious diseases may cause large-scale destruction of lives more than the Ebola outbreak which killed 10,194 as at the 18th of March, 2015. Furthermore, he went through the reasons why the Ebola Virus Disease didn't spread more. Then, he made a very remarkable point similar to one of the characteristics of the present coronavirus disease. He said the next virus might be one in which people will feel well enough that they could move around and get on a plane or visit a crowded place like the market while they are very much infectious, unlike the Ebola virus which confines its victims to a sickbed.
According to him, another flu could wreak havoc in the world like the Spanish Flu of 1918 due to its nature of spread - via the air killing over 30 million people across the world. He confidently submitted that some factors and procedures that could help the world in managing its next epidemic. Building a good response system that will gather the information submitted by the public through their cellphones, satellite maps that can ascertain the location of people and their movements, advancement in virology that could examine pathogens to make drugs and vaccines to tackle any disease would all be needed in an established global health structure according to Bill Gates.
Less than years later, the novel COVID-19 struck, infecting over 1.2 million people across the world and leaving about 75,000 others dead. It has spread across over 180 countries across the world including the home country of the billionaire, the United States of America. Most major cities have become ghost towns due to lockdowns by governments to slow down the spread of the disease. The world is slipping into a global recession as a result of economic inactivity which has hit two of the richest countries in the world - the U.S and China. The loss of jobs has been running into millions with countries having to disburse stimulus packages to revitalize the economy and make life more comfortable for its citizens. Presently, the disease has no cure and emergency has is being conducted by reputable drug companies across the world to find a vaccine. Due to the testing procedures, the earliest a vaccine can be produced is next year or 18 months and the world is fast running out of time.
Bill Gates might not be a prophet saying words from the pulpit in a religious gathering but his vision about the dangers that will befall the world has come to pass in an exact fashion that has left cynics developing conspiracy theories linking him with the alleged creation of the virus at a clandestine biotechnological laboratory to control the world and pave way for the Anti-Christ.
It's on record that no seer or prophet across the world saw the current pandemic coming with the degree of wanton destruction it has been accompanied with. Bill Gates has continued with supporting the world with money; he made a recent contribution of $100 million to help the world battle the disease outbreak through diagnostics, availability of personal protective equipment for health workers on the frontlines as well as the development of a vaccine.
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