Billionaire Bill Gates has warned that the world may not yet have seen the worst of the coronavirus. Gates, the philanthropist and co-founder of tech giant Microsoft, spoke out as the director general of the World Health Organisation also urged caution and said people should remain wary of the virus.
He claims there is a 'way above five per cent' chance of the worst of the pandemic not being seen yet. While insisting he doesn't want to be doom-monger, Gates claimed there could be more dangerous Covid variants around the corner.
"We're still at risk of this pandemic generating a variant that would be even more transmissive and even more fatal," he said in an interview with the Financial Times. "It's not likely, I don't want to be a voice of doom and gloom, but it's way above a 5 per cent risk that this pandemic, we haven't even seen the worst of it."
READ MORE: Toll of the 'scandalous' shortage of menopause treatment
It comes as Gates is set to release a book called How to Prevent the Next Pandemic. He has called on governments to facilitate epidemiologists and data experts to work together to identify future threats to public health.
He said: “The amount of money involved is very small compared to the benefit and it will be a test: can global institutions take on new responsibilities in an excellent way, even in a time period where US-China [relations are] tough, US-Russia is extremely tough?”
The tech boss gave a speech in 2015 claiming that the world was 'not ready for the next epidemic' and said that viruses posed the greatest threat to humans. The virus is estimated to have claimed the lives of more than 6.2 million people across the world died since January 2020.
Cases and the number of deaths have been falling sharply in recent times. Last week Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organisation, warned that the world needs to remain cautious about the virus as the amount of overall coronavirus testing reduces.
Get the latest breaking news stories by signing up for our daily newsletter here.
