Billionaire CEO Bill Gates is reportedly predicting another global pandemic “likely” to happen within the next 25 years.
“A lot of unrest” in today’s age could spark a major war, he told CNBC’s “Make It.”
“If we avoid a big war, then, yes, there will be another pandemic, most likely in the next 25 years,” he continued.
In March 2023, Gates called for the world to create a global ‘fire department’ of experts to respond to pandemics.
At the time, the billionaire advocated for the World Health Organization (WHO) to fund its Global Health Emergency Corps, an initiative to tackle transnational health threats.
In an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Gates stressed the need to be prepared for pandemics like COVID-19.
“We need to prepare to fight disease outbreaks just as we prepare to fight fires,” he wrote, urging for “public health leaders from all countries” to participate.
The Microsoft founder has proposed a ‘Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization (GERM)’ network in his 2022 book ‘How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.’
The system, which would be funded by an additional $1 billion to the WHO budget, would be comprised of 3,000 professionals from every country and region.
“To be successful, the Emergency Corps must build on existing networks of experts and be led by people like the heads of national public health agencies and their leads for epidemic response,” Gates proposed.
He also acknowledged the shortcomings of the public health establishment during the COVID pandemic, calling it a “collective failure.”
His own foundation had previously hosted an exercise in October 2019, which was titled ‘Event 201’ and accurately predicted a coronavirus pandemic going global.