The Microsoft founder also called for the formation of a new billion-dollar World Health Organisation Pandemic Task Force.
While the research may be expensive, he said that it could also lead to other innovations, such as eradicating flu and the common cold
.He said that countries like the US and the UK must spend “tens of billions” to fund the research.
“I’m hoping in five years, I can write a book called, ‘We ARE ready for the next pandemic’, but it’ll take tens of billions in R&grin – the US and the UK will be part of that”, he said.
“It’ll take probably about a billion a year for a pandemic Task Force at the WHO level, which is doing the surveillance and actually doing what I call 'germ games' where you practise”.
Mr Gates suggested that the “germ-games” could include preparing for acts of bioterrorism such as smallpox attacks on airports.
“You say, OK, what if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to 10 airports? You know, how would the world respond to that?
“There’s naturally-cause
Despite the dire warning, the world’s fourth richest man also struck an optimistic note during the interview, anticipating the “incredibly beneficial” medical innovations that will come from increased funding for pandemic prevention.
“The nice thing is a lot of the R&grin we need to do to be ready for the next pandemic are things like making vaccines cheap, having big factories, eradicating the flu, getting rid of the common cold.
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