Bill Gates Says the World Got Lucky With COVID-19: ‘It Could Have Been Way More Fatal’

The cost of the COVID-19 pandemic is staggering, in terms of both human life and and economic activity. But Bill Gates believes humanity is fortunate that the virus was not even more devastating. “I have to say, given the toll of this pandemic 20 million dead globally, a million in the U.S., and it could have been way more fatal. We just got lucky that the death rate per case was like 0.2%,” Gates told TIME senior correspondent Alice Park during the TIME 100 Summit in New York City on Tuesday. While the official global death toll from COVID-19 is about 6.3 million, experts estimate that the real number of deaths is much higher. In May, the World Health Organization estimated that there were about 14.9 million excess deaths associated with the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Gates warned that we should not count on similar lucky during the next global pandemic. Considering how destabilizing the COVID-19 pandemic has been, if another virus emerges with similar virulence but a much higher fatality rate—say, 5%— it could be “society ending,” Gates said. And Gates believes there may very well be a next time for many people alive today. “The chance of another pandemic in the next 20 years, either natural or intentional, I’d say, is over 50%,” he said. Such a warning is especially disturbing coming from a person like Gates, who has spent more than two decades fighting humanity’s great...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 nationpod News sponsorshipblock TIME100 Summit 2022 time1002022 Source Type: news