5 Years Ago Bill Gates Talked About the Danger of New Pandemics, Not Specifically About the Coronavirus

A post circulating on Facebook suggests Microsoft founder, businessman, and philanthropist Bill Gates predicted five years ago that this year there would be a Covid-19 pandemic. His speech at a TED conference on Ebola is being used as a manipulation, where he points out that the world has not done enough to stop the disease and speaks generally about the danger of new pandemics. Gates says that a pandemic of viral infection could occur in the future, but did not specify exactly what type of virus and what year. He does not specifically mention the new coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19

This is a post in which the former Bulgarian football player, Hristo Stoichkov, asks: “How could five years ago, Bill Gates say that there would be a pandemic in 2020?” Stoichkov, who now works for a television station in Miami, Florida, in an interview with Bulgarian media expresses doubts about the truth regarding the coronavirus and says:

A man like Bill Gates cannot say five years ago that in 2020 there will be a major pandemic, without knowing it. These people know what they are talking about; they are ready for a pandemic. No one can convince me otherwise. Gates now comes out and says the difficult period will end in 2021. How can he know, and not the professors and specialists?

It is not the first time that Bill Gates’ name is linked to “world conspiracies” and statements are attributed to him – such as the alleged pandemic prediction that Stoichkov talks about.

In this case, it is a manipulation of Gates’ appearance at the TED conference in 2015. In the period 2015-2016, this is his most famous performance which has been widely quoted by the media, but also almost the only address on this topic by Gates, according to Google searches.

At this event, he spoke generally about the dangers and experiences with pandemics, primarily Ebola, which was current at the time. If you look closely at his speech five years ago, you will see that he is talking about Ebola, that the world did not take the disease seriously enough, invested very little to stop it, and that the world was not ready for another epidemic.

Gates says:

Let’s look at Ebola. I’m sure all of you read about it in the newspaper, lots of tough challenges. I followed it carefully through the case analysis tools we use to track polio eradication. And as you look at what went on, the problem wasn’t that there was a system that didn’t work well enough, the problem was that we didn’t have a system at all. In fact, there’s some pretty obvious key missing pieces. 

He says that there was no group of epidemiologists prepared for Ebola, who would go where they should, see what kind of infection it is and how widespread it is. He also says that the reports on the case were received on paper and were very inaccurate, and their publication on the Internet was quite late…

So there was a lot that was missing. And these things are really a global failure. The failure to prepare could allow the next epidemic to be dramatically more devastating than Ebola… warns Gates.

He says, among other things, one of the reasons Ebola has not spread is that the disease is not transmitted by air. Recalling the Spanish flu of 1918, he points out that in the future there could be a rapidly transmitting virus that would spread through the air and could spread rapidly throughout the world. So, Gates talks in general that a pandemic of a viral infection may occur in the next period, but without specifying exactly what type of virus and what year. He does not mention the new coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.

Gates goes on to say the system as a whole needs to be better prepared to take advantage of science and technology to prevent various health disasters, and in that sense, he is suggesting how the world can improve its health defense strategy. Concluding his performance at the end he recommends:

In fact, if there’s one positive thing that can come out of the Ebola epidemic, it’s that it can serve as an early warning, a wake-up call, to get ready. If we start now, we can be ready for the next epidemic. 

As can be seen, he does not specify at any point what kind of pandemic there will be and when exactly it would happen but warns we should be prepared for some other epidemic.

But his speech here is presented as referring to the coronavirus, that is, as if Bill Gates knew that this pandemic would break out in 2020 – a viral respiratory infection caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is not true.

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