Gates said that if investments are made now in medical technology, the world would be in a better position to fight the possible future pandemic
The risks of Covid-19 have “dramatically reduced” but it is almost certain that the world will see another pandemic, said Bill Gates during at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference. 
He said that a large part of the global population has achieved a certain level of protection against coronavirus and its severity has also waned. 
“The chance of severe disease, which is mainly associated with being elderly and having obesity or diabetes, those risks are now dramatically reduced because of that infection exposure,” he said.
However, Gates cautioned: “We’ll have another pandemic. It will be a different pathogen next time.”
Gates said that if investments are made now in medical technology, the world would be in a better position to fight the possible future pandemic.
“The cost of being ready for the next pandemic is not that large,” he said, adding: “It’s not like climate change. If we’re rational, yes, the next time we’ll catch it early.”
Further, he said it was already “too late” to reach the World Health Organization’s goal to vaccinate 70% of the global population by the middle of this year. 
“Next time we should try and make it, instead of two years, we should make it more like six months,” he said, adding that standardized platforms, including messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, would make that possible.
“The cost of being ready for the next pandemic is not that large. It’s not like climate change. If we’re rational, yes, the next time we’ll catch it early,” said Gates, who is the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Meanwhile, the WHO said earlier this week that the number of new coronavirus cases globally fell by 19% in the last week while the number of deaths remained stable.
The UN health agency said in its weekly report on the pandemic that just over 16 million new Covid-19 infections and about 75,000 deaths were reported worldwide last week.
 
 
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