Bill Gates Requests A "Global Alert System" To Be Launched

MUMBAI: Billionaire-philanthropist Bill Gates, on his first tour of India since the pandemic, does not mince his words when he talks about lessons from the tragedy wrought by Covid. Bill Gates, co-chair and trustee of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is in India to get a sense of the country’s recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from faster diagnostics and vaccine production, he says there is a need to develop early warning systems "on an ongoing basis" to detect new viruses.

"The world has much to do on practice and surveillance. Sadly, the next pandemic could be far more fatal... this one killed over 20 million, mostly older people. You can have a pandemic that would kill hundreds of millions," Gates said.