This week, Gates made his remarks during the TIME 100 summit (via Insider). The billionaire recommended the establishment of a Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization (GERM) team of 3,000 infectious disease experts, managed by the World Health Organization, to assist countries cope with epidemics.
Gates said, "You can''t do much if you don''t act quickly." Pandemics are a global issue, and if one country fails to do its part in monitoring and de-circulate, then that''s a problem for all other countries." He added that the GERM team would have to take on responsibility for "a dozen or so countries."
The team''s size and the required funding would cost the economy around $1 billion per year to help, although Gates believes the pandemic has reduced the economy by $14 trillion, thus the benefits far outweigh the consequences. He notes that the world was fortunate the Covid death rate was just 0.2%, warning that a future pandemic might be more fatal.
Gates said the US had increased its capacity to perform diagnostics and quarantine, making the country''s death rate as low as Taiwan (3,373) or Australia (8,919).
Gates criticized the US government back in 2020 for its Coronavirus strategy, claiming that it failed to act rapidly enough to prevent a shutdown. Elon Musk also blasted the Tesla CEO for his controversial views on Covid, vaccinations, and lockdowns.
In his upcoming book "How to Prevent the Next Pandemic," Gates discusses the GERM team and other ideas.
