American philanthropist Bill Gates hass expressed confidence that the world will be back to normacly by 2022 following the covid-19 pandemic that has taken every country of the world by storm.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, the Microsoft co-founder said that the first half of 2022 will largely bring the end to the pandemic.
His statement came hours after Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced to provide monetary help of a further $250 million to develop the lifesaving tools to curb the covid-19 infection.
Acknowledging the significant progress on the vaccine front, Gates said that it’s very impressive that we have a vaccine in 12 months.
When asked if vaccine supply would be a hurdle that can be solved by the middle of 2022, Gates assured that other vaccine candidates would get regulatory approval by 2021 and it will then be only logistics approach to deliver the vaccines.
“I think we will raise the money and we’ll have the manufacturing capacity, and so that, you know, for the rich world in 2021 and for the world as a whole… in the first half of 2022, we should be able to get the vaccine coverage that largely brings this pandemic to an end,” Gates said.
However, Gates asserted that even as the vaccine candidates have prove safety, there is always a chance of reinfection and we have to be cautious and follw covid-19 guidelines until we get rid of this virus completely.
“We really need to get this virus eliminated, almost everywhere or else we have seen even in countries that have done a super good job – like Australia or Singapore or Hong Kong or South Korea – they always run a risk of re-infection. So they’ve had to restrict tourism and other travel, but by summer that will start to open up. They won’t be totally back to normal but sometime in the first half of 2022, I do think we will be able to say that we’re back to normal,” Gates said as per the report.
Asked if the next summer will see businesses reopen and kids back at school, Gates said that rich countries will have more vaccine coverage than other countries. So, the rich will be going mostly back to normal.
