Bill Gates Expects Fewer Covid Cases, Yearly Shots After Omicron
The disease could be “treated more like seasonal flu" after the current wave, billionaire Bill Gates said in a Twitter discussion.
(Bloomberg) -- A decline in the number of coronavirus cases is likely after the current wave of the omicron variant crests and the disease could be “treated more like seasonal flu,” billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates says in a Twitter discussion with Professor Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University Medical School.
“A more transmissive variant is not likely but we have been surprised a lot during this pandemic. Omicron will create a lot of immunity at least for the next year,” he writes.
Gates, who has committed resources via his foundation to help in the global fight against the virus, says people may have to take “yearly shots for Covid for some time”
Key quotes
On the conspiracy theory that falsely claims that he seeks to inject microchips into every vaccinated person:
- “Trusted authorities like @WHO and @CDCgov need more resources to see the pandemic early (surveillance) and to communicate better. Social media got behind on trying to get factual information out - there will be a lot of debate about how to do better on that.”
- “People like you and I and Tony Fauci have been subject to a lot of misinformation. I didn’t expect that. Some of it like me putting chips in arms doesn’t make sense to me - why would I want to do that?”
On what’s ahead with shots:
- The vaccines we have prevent severe disease and death very well but they are missing two key things. First they still allow infections (“breakthrough”) and the duration appears to be limited. We need vaccines that prevent re-infection and have many years of duration.”
Read the tweet stream here.
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