Did someone actually warn us about Corona?

Corona has become such a life-changing event that there is a clamour to claim that it was predicted. Netizens are claiming that Nostradamus had predicted the Corona outbreak in medieval times itself. There is a novel that had a virus outbreak originating from Wuhan. Some astrologers are also claiming to have predicted this outbreak. But these are all non-scientific and unproven accounts. Does that mean no one had warned us about this disaster?

Reality is that Bill Gates had warned the world about the possibility of an infectious disease outbreak that can kill millions. Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft and is one of the richest people on the earth. He has left all his business commitments and is now solely focused on Gates Foundation which is a charitable organization to which he has donated most of his riches.

Bill gave a Ted talk in 2016 and highlighted the world’s unpreparedness to face an outbreak of infectious diseases. He also wrote an op-ed for the New York Times and a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine expanding on the preparation required to face such a challenge.

Bill shared that we can prevent such a catastrophe by building a global warning and response system for epidemics. To prevent and contain outbreaks, we would require the kind of planning that goes into national defenses. That includes systems for recruiting, training and equipping health workers; investments in new tools.

He not only warned us about such an epidemic, but he has also put his money where his mouth is. In 2017 at World Economic Forum in Davos, he launched the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in collaboration with governments of Norway, India, Japan, and Germany, and Wellcome Trust. CEPI’s aim is to will help the world get ready for future epidemics by investing in innovations to accelerate the development of vaccines that are needed to contain outbreaks.

It is unfortunate that most of the global leaders didn’t heed to these warnings. If we have taken the steps outlined by Bill, we would have saved countless lives. Investment of a few billion dollars in time would have saved trillions of dollars of economic catastrophe. Really a stitch in time saves nine.

After it became clear that COVID-19 is going to become a pandemic, Bill announced a grant of $100 million to find vaccines. He is bankrolling production setup for 7 different vaccines knowing fully well that only 1 or 2 will finally go to production. This might mean potentially throwing away a couple of billion dollars just to ensure that the vaccines can be used as soon as possible.

We salute Bill’s dedication to his philanthropic ventures, his persistence in solving the world’s trickiest problems and his prescience of such an epidemic.