We Must Prepare For Next Pandemic “Like The Threat Of A War,” Says Bill Gates

• A letter by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation urged the world to prepare for the next pandemic like we prepare for “a war.”
• The foundation has invested $1.75 billion in the fight against Covid.
• In 2015, Gates warned about the dangers of global pandemics during his TED talk.

The world must prepare for the next pandemic in the same way it would prepare for a war. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently said this in a letter he wrote with his wife Melinda.

In the annual letter from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the billionaire philanthropist reminded everyone that “the threat of the next pandemic will always be hanging over our heads — unless the world takes steps to prevent it.”

“We can’t afford to be caught flat-footed again,” the letter said.

“To prevent the hardship of this last year from happening again, pandemic preparedness must be taken as seriously as we take the threat of war,” he wrote.

“Speed matters in a pandemic,” Gates also emphasized. “The faster you act, the faster you cut off exponential growth of the virus.”

He likewise pointed out:

“The world now understands how seriously we should take pandemics. No one needs to be convinced that an infectious disease could kill millions of people or shut down the global economy… I am hopeful that we’ll see broad support for efforts that make sure we never have to experience this hardship again.”

According to the letter, the Gates Foundation has “invested $1.75 billion in the fight against COVID-19 so far and pivoted much of its staff to pandemic-related projects,” adding a huge portion of the funds “is earmarked to ensure developing countries don’t lose out as rich countries snap up supplies of vaccines and drugs.”

It can be remembered that Gates has warned the world about the dangers of global pandemics back in 2015 during his TED speech.

“If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes,” he said back then.

You can watch the full video here: