“The future infectious disease is more deadly than COVID-19… If you invest 1 trillion won a year to form a global team
I will act as a firefighter before it spreads like a fire.”
Microsoft founder Bill Gates (67) proposed eight measures, including the establishment of a ‘global epidemic prevention team’ in the book ‘How to Prevent The Next Pandemic’, which will be published on the 3rd of next month.
According to the report obtained by The Times in the UK on the 26th (local time), Gates said, “The next epidemic we will experience may be more contagious or more fatal than the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). “In the worst case, it can be created and spread by humans in the form of bioterrorism,” he warned. “Before we forget the suffering we have suffered due to COVID-19, we must quickly prepare countermeasures for the next epidemic,” he said.
Gates suggested eight precautions in his book. Among them, the most notable one is to invest 1 billion dollars a year (about 1.25 trillion won) to create a global epidemic prevention team. He also gave the name of the team ‘Germ (Global epidemic response and mobilization)’. “An epidemic spreads rapidly from one area to another like a fire,” Gates said.
He also came up with a specific plan to hire 3,000 full-time employees in fields such as epidemiology, genetics, drug and vaccine development to take on roles such as epidemic monitoring and alerting, information sharing, and policy recommendations. The team also said that it should be a decentralized organization that is operated under the World Health Organization (WHO) and includes members from various regions.
Gates said the $1 billion budget needed to run the team would be “less than one-thousandth of the world’s annual defense spending,” and “it’s a low cost considering the trillions of dollars that the pandemic can do to the world.” He also pointed out that the outbreak of COVID-19 was not because there was not a shortage of smart people, but because the environment and system were not prepared to maximize their abilities.
In addition to this, Gates said △Each country detects an epidemic within 7 days △Preparing measures to immediately protect patients (by maintaining distance) △Reviewing the feasibility of using existing treatments △Developing highly accessible vaccines △Introducing simulated pandemic training △Eradication of infectious diseases in poor countries △ Suggested measures such as the preparation of epidemic prevention measures for each country.
Reporter Kim Min kimmin@donga.com
