Bill Gates wants governments to participate in ‘germ games’ to prepare for the next pandemic

Bill Gates has warned leaders they are drastically unprepared for the next major disease event, speaking on the future of “germ games”.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has recommended governments spend up to a billion dollars per year conducting something he calls “germ games” to further prepare the world for future epidemics and biosecurity issues.

Gates has long been a voice of caution against the dangers of viruses affecting the global community, playing a major role in the US response to the current Covid-19 pandemic via the the World Economic Forum’s Epidemics Readiness Accelerator.

In October 2019, a month before Covid-19 was first detected in Wuhan, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with The Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security to conduct “a high-level simulation exercise for pandemic preparedness and response”, labelled Event 201.

The former Microsoft CEO has been outspoken throughout the pandemic, regularly offering his opinion on how the world should tackle something as all-encompassing as Covid.

Now, the 66-year-old has recommended the WHO form a Pandemic Task Force in preparation for the next big viral event. Speaking with chair of the United Kingdom’s Health Select Committee Jeremy Hunt, Mr Gates outlined his new proposal for western governments, which he believes could be doing “dramatically better” despite most nations currently treating Covid as their most pressing issue.

“It’ll take probably about a billion a year for a pandemic Task Force at the (World Health Organization) level, which is doing the surveillance and actually doing what I call ‘germ games’ where you practice (for future outbreaks),” he said.

Mr Gates also went on to speculate about health officials’ preparedness for potential bioterrorism attacks, such as a smallpox dump on international airports, warning the results could be “way worse than what we experienced today”.

“OK, what if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to 10 airports? You know, how would the world respond to that?” he queried.

“There’s naturally-caused epidemics and bioterrorism-caused epidemics that could even be way worse than what we experienced today and yet, the advances in medical science should give us tools that, you know, we could do dramatically better.

“So, you‘d think this would be a priority. The next year will be where those allocations have to get made, including this global pandemic Task Force.”

Bill Gates speaks during the Global Investment Summit at the Science Museum on October 19, 2021 in London, England.

Mr Gates, whose foundation has funded the WHO to the tune of $A322 million for Covid research, believes world leaders must dedicate even more taxpayer funds to battle future public health crises.

Now officially listed as the world’s fourth richest man following his 2021 divorce with Melinda, Mr Gates is trying to stay optimistic for the future, with $US138.2 billion next to his name.

He called on superpowers like the US and UK to pledge “tens of billions” into future-proofing their systems.

“I‘m hoping in five years, I can write a book called, ‘We ARE ready for the next pandemic,’ but it’ll take tens of billions in research and development - the US and the UK will need to be part of that,” Mr Gates said.

“The nice thing is a lot of the R&D we need to do to be ready for the next pandemic are things like making vaccines cheap, having big factories, eradicating the flu, getting rid of the common cold, making vaccines just a little patch you put on your arm, things that will be incredibly beneficial even in the years when we don‘t have pandemics.”

Bill Gates has warned world leaders they could be “doing dramatically better” in their preparation for future pandemics and bioterrorism attacks.

He also pointed out a widely accepted flaw in the vaccine technology used around the world today. According to Mr Gates, developers will need to find a new way to block transmission entirely before being confident of stamping out dangerous viruses for good.

“You know, we didn’t have vaccines that block transmission,” he said.

“We got vaccines that help you with your health, but they only slightly reduced transmission. We need a new way of doing the vaccines.

“So along with the climate message and the ongoing fight against diseases of the poor, pandemic preparedness is something I‘ll be talking about a lot,” he said.

“And I think it‘ll find fertile ground because we lost trillions of dollars and millions of lives and citizens expect their governments not to let that happen again.”

ALERT: Bill Gates has warned of bioterrorist attacks and urged international authorities, including the World Health Organization, to prepare by engaging in “germ games.”

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