The founder and philanthropist of Microsoft, who in 2015 first publicly warned that the world was not ready for the inevitable next pandemic, said that his initiative to tackle and mobilize the epidemic should be managed by the World Health Organization. As the war in Ukraine dominates the international agenda, Gates urged world leaders not to overlook the health crisis. He called for greater investment in preventing future pandemics. “I think it’s crazy that we could not see this tragedy and not make these investments on behalf of the people of the world,” Gates told the Financial Times. More than 6.2 million people worldwide are estimated to have died from Covid-19 by the end of January 2020, shortly before the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern. Acknowledged that there were questions about whether an international consensus could be reached on increasing funding for the WHO, which he believes was the only body that could create and manage the “top” GERM team for which the WHO operating costs, he estimated, would be about $ 1 billion a year. “The amount of money involved is very small compared to the benefit and it will be a test: global institutions can take on new responsibilities in a great way, even at a time when the US-China [relations are] tough, is the US-Russia extremely tough? ‘ said Gates Bill Gates © POOL / AFP via Getty Images The WHO had “less than 10 full-time employees” working on epidemic preparedness, Gates said, adding that “even these people are distracted from many other activities”. “The current WHO funding is not serious about pandemics,” he said. Gates, who argued that there was an urgent need for longer-term vaccines to prevent infection, said the current pandemic remained a threat. “We are still in danger of this pandemic creating a variant that would be even more contagious and even more deadly,” he said. “It’s not possible, I do not want to be the voice of destruction and gloom, but this pandemic is well above the 5 percent risk, we have not seen even the worst.” Gates, whose book How to Prevent the Next Pandemic is published on Tuesday, expressed hope that the UK would not further reduce its contribution to foreign aid funding, suggesting that this could lead other nations to become involved in their own cut, which could jeopardize key global public health programs. The UK’s decision last year to cut its annual aid budget from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of gross national income was “a disappointment”. This meant that areas such as polio and reproductive health had been cut. “We are at a minimum, and if the UK cuts more, then so will others,” Gates said. “It simply came to our notice then. . . all this money saves lives with less than $ 1,000 per life saved. “ He said the United Kingdom remains a major donor to the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
