It's time to prepare together for a pandemic
Gates: more than 30 million people could die if terrorists create new viruses
Terrorists can create new varieties of dangerous diseases, the victims of which, presumably, will be more than 30 million people. This was stated at the Munich Security Conference by the founder of the American company Microsoft, Bill Gates, who heads the foundation, which, in particular, specializes in combating the spread of diseases.
According to him, "there is a high chance that the cause of the next epidemic will be the creation of an artificial variety of the smallpox virus or a contagious and very dangerous strain of influenza for the purposes of terrorism by bioengineering methods." "The bottom line is that we ignore to our detriment the existence of a clear relationship between health protection measures and international security," Gates stressed (not for the first time, but governments do not hear him – VM).
"The models created by epidemiologists show that, whether it is a whim of nature or the actions of terrorists, a rapidly spreading, airborne pathogen can kill more than 30 million people in less than a year," the Microsoft founder pointed out. "There is a real possibility that this will happen in the coming years."
According to Gates, an example of the danger posed by contagious diseases is the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918-1919. Then about more than 50 million people died from infection in the world, which exceeds the number of deaths in the First World War. "Preparing for a global pandemic is just as important as nuclear deterrence and trying to avoid catastrophic developments due to climate change," Gates added. "Innovation, cooperation and careful planning can significantly reduce these risks."
The founder of Microsoft pointed out that the available methods and technologies can significantly reduce the risk of the spread of diseases, but this area needs to be funded. He drew attention to the fact that in order to prevent large-scale epidemics, it would be enough to deduct several billion dollars a year, while the damage caused by diseases can be estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars.
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20.02.2017