Famous billionaire, philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates has expressed a certain degree of optimism about the prospects of mankind’s struggle against the COVID pandemic in the coming year.
Writing in a “year-in-review” post on his blog, Gates argued that, while “we’re not as close to the end of the pandemic” as he previously expected, what with the “Delta variant and challenges with vaccine uptake”, he remains hopeful that “the end is finally in sight.”
“It might be foolish to make another prediction, but I think the acute phase of the pandemic will come to a close some time in 2022", he speculated.
He noted that it apparently took less time to discover Omicron than Delta “because South Africa has invested heavily in genomic sequencing capabilities, and we’re in a much better position to create updated vaccines if they’re needed".
"It’s troubling any time a new variant of concern emerges, but I’m still hopeful that, at some point next year, COVID-19 will become an endemic disease in most places", Gates added.
He further suggested that, while COVID still remains “about 10 times more lethal than the flu”, that number can be drastically decreased with the help of vaccines and antivirals, and that while occasional outbreaks may occur, “new drugs will be available that could take care of most cases and hospitals will be able to handle the rest".
"The good news is that the world no longer needs to be persuaded that stopping a pandemic is important", Gates declared.