Bill Gates has warned the world faces future pandemics far worse than COVID-19.
Bill Gates warns of future pandemics
The Microsoft CEO's foundation with his ex-wife Melinda, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has teamed up with the UK’s Wellcome Trust to donate $300m to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which finances independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.
The CEPI is aiming to reduce the time required to develop a new vaccine to just 100 days.
But the billionaire business magnate and philanthropist, whose organisation has put $150 million towards their COVAX initiative to get vaccines to poorer countries, says more needs to be done.
He said: “When we talk about spending billions to save . . . trillions of economic damage and tens of billions of lives, it’s a pretty good insurance policy."
The UK government has sponsored a fundraiser in London on March 8, to help reach the $3.5 billion target set by the CEPI.
Gates said: “Five years ago, following the Ebola and Zika epidemics, our foundation helped launch CEPI.
“Today, we’re increasing our commitment … to help CEPI accelerate the development of safe and effective vaccines against emerging variants of the coronavirus and to prepare for, and possibly even prevent, the next pandemic.”
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