The acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic may end next year despite the emergence of new strains of coronavirus and insufficient vaccination rates, Report informs referring to Bloomberg.
To Bill Gates, 2021 did not bring as much improvement to the pandemic as he had hoped.
With more Covid-19 deaths this year than in 2020, the delta variant and challenges with vaccine uptake, progress has been underwhelming, the billionaire indicated in a year in review post on his blog.
“I underestimated how tough it would be to convince people to take the vaccine and continue to use masks,” Gates said.
But the Microsoft Corp. co-founder is optimistic about 2022. “I think the acute phase of the pandemic will come to a close some time in 2022,” Gates said.
His prediction comes as the world deals with a new variant and in the US cases are approaching 50 million.
“There’s no question that the Omicron variant is concerning,” Gates said. “But here’s what we do know: The world is better prepared to tackle potentially bad variants than at any other point in the pandemic so far.” Gates estimated that while it’s currently approximately 10 times more lethal than the flu, vaccines and antivirals could reduce that by 50%. “Communities will still see occasional outbreaks, but new drugs will be available that could take care of most cases and hospitals will be able to handle the rest.”