17th December 2020

Bill Gates predicts the next 4 to 6 months 'could be the worst of the epidemic'

By business insider

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While the coronavirus vaccine is finally being administered, Bill Gates says the worst is still to come as the US enters the winter months before widespread vaccination is completed.

"The next four to six months could be the worst of the epidemic," Gates said during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

Gates' outlook echoes what public-health experts have been saying for months now, as this winter surge of cases is likely to be the deadliest yet.

"If we would follow the rules in terms of wearing masks and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of these deaths," Gates added. "In the near term, it's bad news."

Gates has long been sounding the alarm about a pandemic, including in a 2017 op-ed for Business Insider in which he wrote that "a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year." (For reference, the global death toll for COVID-19 is 1.9 million.)

The Microsoft cofounder has been active in helping get a vaccine out to the public and donated $100 million via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation toward vaccine development and therapeutic treatments.

He has also said he will get the vaccine publicly to help boost confidence in the treatment.