How To Prevent the Next Pandemic
BILL GATES
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Anyone ever tempted to accuse Bill Gates of jumping on a bandwagon should check that he didn’t invent the wagon in the first place. He’s certainly no late- coming opportunist when it comes to pandemics. As is now widely acknowledged, Gates gave a TED talk in 2015 where he warned about an airborne respiratory pathogen, “Disease X”, that if allowed to flour- ish could claim 30 million souls and leave a $10 trillion dent in the global economy. He takes a certain quiet satisfaction from coming close to the actual numbers.

Gates’ interest in – he says “passion” for – infectious disease goes back to 1997, when he and his now ex-wife Melinda read an article in The New York Times that reported an annual death toll of 3.1 million, mostly chil- dren, caused by diarrhoea, a disease that in the West is little more than an “uncomfortable inconvenience”. Gates’ gift isn’t so much invention, as the ability to identify and corral talent. He noted that while considerable energy and investment had been harnessed in precautions against flood and earthquake damage and loss of life, nothing seemed to be getting done to prepare for a global pan- demic that some scientists were describing as “inevitable” and even “overdue”.