Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the coronavirus, which is officially known as COVID-19, could be the “once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about.”
In an article published Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine, Gates wrote, “I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise.”
Globally, the virus has affected nearly 85,210 and killed 2,924 people, with the vast majority of them being reported in China. In the United States, CDC officials have reported 66 confirmed cases so far.
In 2000, Gates and his wife, Melinda, founded The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help improve health and combat poverty across the world.
Earlier this month, the foundation announced that it would donate $100 million for finding and developing treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus, particularly in poorer countries.
The 64-year-old said COVID-19 poses a serious public health threat to the world because it is highly contagious than other deadly viruses.
“First, it can kill healthy adults in addition to elderly people with existing health problems,” Gates wrote. “Second, Covid-19 is transmitted quite efficiently. The average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others — an exponential rate of increase.”
Experts have said that COVID-19 spreads from close contact with people who are infected by the virus. It can even spread by people who are mildly ill or do not have any symptoms, making it difficult to contain the outbreak.
Gates wrote that the mortality rate is “many times more severe than typical seasonal influenza.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the mortality rate of COVID-19 can differ, which can range from 0.7% to 4%, depending on the quality of the medical care received.
Gates has urged world leaders to play a key role in stopping the spread of the virus. He asked developed countries to help developing and underdeveloped countries in an effort to contain the virus.
He wrote many low- and middle-income nations’ “health systems are already stretched thin, and a pathogen like a coronavirus can quickly overwhelm them and poorer countries have little political or economic leverage, given wealthier countries’ natural desire to put their own people first.”
Last month, the WHO recognized 13 top priority nations with direct links or a high number of travels to China, including Ethiopia, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
This is not the first time Gates has voiced his concern that the world is not prepared for an outbreak. He expressed similar concerns on the Ebola outbreak in DRC, which was declared a public health emergency by WHO.
His foundation donated millions of dollars to combat Ebola. In addition, his foundation donated $1 billion in November to combat polio.
Warren Buffett, CEO, and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said that he had discussed the coronavirus with Gates.
Buffett, who calls Gates his “science advisor,” said Gates was “bullish” on the long-term outlook for universal prevention of the infection.
