Posted: 10:27, 1 May 2022 | Updated: 11:03, 1 May 2022
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has warned that there is a risk that “more than five percent” may not have seen the worst of the Covid pandemic. The tech mogul and philanthropist said he did not want “disaster and disaster” to be heard, but warned that there was a danger of creating an “even more contagious and even more deadly” variant. He said the risk of this happening was “well over five per cent” and would mean that the world had not yet seen the worst of the pandemic. This is not the first time he has made such a prediction. In December 2021, he warned his millions of followers on Twitter to prepare for the worst part of the pandemic, having previously warned in 2015 that the world was not ready for the next pandemic. Gates told the FT: “We are still in danger of this pandemic creating a variant that would be even more contagious and even more deadly. “It’s not possible, I do not want to be the voice of destruction and gloom, but it is well above the 5 percent risk that we have not seen even the worst of this pandemic.” Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates warns that there is a “more than five percent” risk that the world has not yet seen the worst of the Covid pandemic Covid-19 has killed an estimated 6.2 million people worldwide since March 2020, but the number of cases and deaths have dropped in recent weeks. Gates’ warning comes after Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), warned this week that people still have to get tired of the virus and that reducing overall testing and Covid surveillance countries left the world at risk of relapse. Gates – who released his new book How to Prevent the Next Pandemic on Tuesday – advised governments around the world to invest in a team of epidemiologists and computer modelers to help identify global health threats in the future. He called his plan a Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization Initiative and said it should be run by the WHO – the only body that claimed to be able to create and manage the “top” team of experts at a cost of about $ 1 billion a year. He said the current WHO funding model “is not at all serious about pandemics” and that less than a dozen people worked full-time for epidemic preparedness, while being distracted by other activities. Gates’s comments come at the end of a week, when Covid’s daily hospitalizations in the UK dropped to a two-month low and deaths fell by 40 per cent in a week. Government control panel data – which are becoming increasingly unreliable now that free trials have been lifted – show that on April 23, 1,186 imports for the virus were made across the UK. It was down almost 18 percent from the previous week and down 36 percent in a fortnight. It was also the lowest number since February 27, when there were 1,101 admissions. The UK reported a drop in Covid cases a few weeks after NHS leaders called for the return of face masks and outdoor mixing to reduce Covid rates (stock image) Distinct NHS data show that more than half of Covid patients in hospitals are not primarily infected with the virus, another promising sign. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 2.4 million people in England became infected with the virus every day last week, which equates to one in 25 people – down a quarter from the previous week. The huge surveillance study, based on 120,000 people smeared and considered the best way to measure the epidemic in the country, recorded the lowest rate since the week that began on February 26th. The withdrawal comes just weeks after NHS leaders called for the return of face masks and outdoor mixing to reduce Covid rates and reduce pressure from the health service.
