Pandemic Preparedness To Digitisation: Seven Key Predictions From Bill Gates
On December 7, Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote his highly-anticipated "year in review" column on GatesNotes - The Blog of Bill Gates.
Titled "Reasons for optimism after a difficult year," Gates' reflections reveal the tech maestro and philanthropist's headspace as the pandemic begins to run into its third year.
"2020 had a brief period of relative normalcy before COVID-19 upended everything. In 2021, the pandemic has dominated our lives since day one. We¡¯ve all had to adapt to a ¡°new normal,¡± although what that looks like is different for every person," Gates wrote.
Calling the entire experience "strange and disorienting," Gates listed out a few highlights of the year.
A malaria vaccine
Highlighting how malaria kills about 650,000 people each year, Bill Gates called the WHO approval of the world's first malaria vaccine "one of the most exciting things to happen this year."
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Gates explained how the new vaccine could help scientists conduct more study into "second-generation vaccines" and "preventative tools" that can deliver more effective vaccines for all age groups to eradicate deadly diseases like malaria.
The end of Covid-19
Bill Gates says he's hopeful that the end of "Covid-19 pandemic is finally in sight." Talking about the "highly transmissible" Delta variant, Gates said how the pandemic has run longer than he'd expected it to.
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"I underestimated how tough it would be to convince people to take the vaccine and continue to use masks," Gates added. Optimism is running high in Gates' veins at the end of this year. "I think the acute phase of the pandemic will come to a close some time in 2022," he wrote.
Decline in global trust
The pandemic has truly jolted the foundations of our society. People's trust in their governments, leaders, and employers remain shook. "The pandemic has been a massive test of governance," Gates wrote.
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Referring to the 2021 Edelman Trust Index, Gates added how trust is dropping across the globe. While Gates underlined how governments are a convenient target, he also said that the decline in governments across the globe set in motion things that had been bubbling for quite some time before the pandemic.
"It¡¯s clear that increased polarization is a significant driver," the tech mogul wrote, adding reasons for the same. "There are many reasons for this growing divide, including a 24-hour news cycle, a political climate that rewards headline generation over substantive debate, and the rise of social media."
Regulation of social media
While talking about the decline in global trust and the role played by social media, Bill Gates highlighted how "governments need to regulate what you can and can't use social media for."
This may come off as a threat to freedom of speech for many. Gates has an answer for them too. "The reality is that our government already has all sorts of norms around communication," Gates wrote.
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"Network TV shows can¡¯t show explicit sex scenes or use certain profane language before 10 p.m. in case children are watching. These rules exist to protect people. So why couldn¡¯t our government create new rules to protect them from the most tangible harms created by social media?," he explained.
Climate conservation
Climate change's harsh realities are now manifesting in regions around the globe - be it in the form of unpredictable weather or large-scale disaster events.
Calling "innovation" the central takeaway of COP26 in Glasgow this year, Gates highlighted how "innovation needs to be at the forefront of any plan to get to zero emissions by 2050."
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In addition, Bill Gates coined a new term - "Green Premium," which in his own words is "the cost difference between things that emit greenhouse gases and things that don¡¯t." According to him, this Green Premium needs to be reduced to make green technologies accessible to all.
A digitised world
According to Bill Gates, the future of an office environment has been significantly altered in the aftermath of Covid-19, as more digitisation becomes the norm.
"Within the next two or three years, I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids¡ªwhich I call the Hollywood Squares model, although I know that probably dates me¡ªto the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars," Gates wrote.
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Gates went on to explain how people would use their "avatar to meet with people in a virtual space that replicates the feeling of being in an actual room with them."
Future pandemic preparedness
With Covid-19 nearing its end, Bill Gates hopes that key stakeholders including governments and researchers alike realise the importance of pandemic preparedness.
"I¡¯m hopeful that we¡¯ll see broad support for pandemic preparedness efforts, and I plan on spending a lot of time advocating for them," Gates wrote.
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In addition, Gates announced that advocating for pandemic preparedness "is the biggest and most important thing I¡¯m going to work on in 2022."
What do you think about these optimistic reflections of Bill Gates, one of the leading faces of technology and philanthropy at the moment? Let us know if you agree with him in the comments below.??
For more in the world of?tech and science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com. You can read the entire post by Bill Gates here.
