Bill Gates proposes international task force to prevent pandemics

For Bill Gates, who predicted the world’s unpreparedness to deal with an imminent pandemic, Covid-19 could be the last to afflict the planet. The billionaire Microsoft founder revealed this Tuesday (12) a proposal to create an international team to detect outbreaks before they become pandemics.

In a TED talk, the same space where in 2015 he warned of the risk of pandemics, Gates called the team GERM, an acronym for “global response and mobilization to the epidemic”.

The group would be formed by 3,000 professionals from various areas, located in several countries, responding to the WHO (World Health Organization) and with an annual budget of US$ 1 billion (R$ 4.65 billion).

“The group’s priority is pandemic prevention,” Gates said. “GERM is made up of a diverse set of experts (…) epidemiologists, data scientists, logistics specialists, and it’s not just scientific and medical. They also need to have communication and diplomacy skills.”

Gates compared pandemics to global wildfires, recalling how the first fire departments were created back in the Roman Empire with wooden water buckets, one of which he brought to the TED stage.

“Emperor Augustus understood that individuals alone cannot protect themselves from fires. They need help from the community. When one person’s house is on fire, it creates a risk for everyone else’s homes. And what we’ve had in recent years is like a terrible global fire,” Gates said, noting that the US has more than 370,000 firefighters and more than 8 million fire hydrants.

“There could be periods of no risk of outbreaks, and to keep the skills of the GERM team steady and strong, they would work on other infectious diseases, but that would be a second priority. They would work with countries to strengthen their health systems.”

When asked by the presenter of the session, Helen Walters, about who would finance the proposal, Gates explained that the WHO would have to rely on the governments of the richest countries to reach a consensus on raising the funds.

“The WHO has a big annual meeting, the World Health Assembly, and at some point someone will come up with a resolution and we’ll see if the extra resources can be put towards that,” he replied. “I would be surprised if we don’t come up with something very close to what I’m putting here.”

In addition to GERM, Gates spoke of the need for new tools, such as vaccines in patches, medicine in the form of inhalers and a small machine called the Lumira RX, which is low-cost and can diagnose a variety of diseases.

“When we look at vaccines, they were the miracle of this epidemic, they saved millions of lives, but they can be so much better,” Gates said.

“We need to incorporate easier-to-administer vaccines that are just a patch on your arm or something you inhale. We need vaccines that actually block infections, we’ve seen a lot of ‘breakthrough infections’ [escape à vacina, quando uma pessoa imunizada tem diagnóstico positivo para a doença].”

The cost will be high, but Gates believes countries will save in the long run and close the gap between rich and poor when it comes to health. “It’s like an insurance policy. The cost of preventing the next pandemic will be tens of billions of dollars,” he said.

“But let’s compare that to what we’ve just gone through: the IMF estimates that Covid cost nearly $14 trillion. So we need to spend billions to save trillions.”

The TED presenter also asked Gates how he feels about anti-vaccination groups spreading fake news about immunizations and about his life in particular. One such group held a small protest Sunday outside the Vancouver Convention Center, where TED runs through Thursday.

“Well, it’s kind of weird,” he replied, causing laughter from the audience. Gates explained that the foundation named after him and his ex-wife Melinda is involved in vaccines, either inventing or funding, saving tens of millions of lives.

“It’s kind of ironic for someone to say that we’re using vaccines to kill people or make money or that we’ve started the pandemic. Or weird things like I somehow want to track the location of individuals because I’m so deeply desirous of knowing where everyone is.”

“But, you know, I hope that as the pandemic subsides, people will be more rational and understand that vaccines are miracles. And there’s so much more we can do.”