Bill Gates voices predictions on expected pandemic

American business magnate, Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes that humanity may face a new pandemic in the next 20 years with a 50-per cent probability.

[The expected pandemic] could come from a virus that we already know. It could be a type of flu, a different type of coronavirus, he said in an interview with the Spanish El Diario newspaper, according to TASS.

"And that would at least allow us to have some knowledge of how to get treatment and a vaccine very quickly. But it could be something else," the American businessman added.

"It could be a human-made virus, a bioterrorist who developed it and deliberately spread it. This is a very scary scenario because they might try to spread it to different places simultaneously," Gates noted.

"Or it could be something that comes out of the natural world,” Gates said. "The human population is growing and we are invading new ecosystems." "That's why I calculated that there is a 50 per cent chance that in the next 20 years we will have a naturally occurring pandemic as a consequence of climate change," he said.

To fight pandemics, the entrepreneur proposes the creation of a "global epidemic response and mobilization team", which he compares to firefighters.

"What I'm proposing would require a 25 per cent increase in the World Health Organization's budget, and with that, we would have a team of around 3,000 people with different profiles," he added.