'Not Missiles But Microbes': Bill Gates's 2015 Speech Warned Of A 'Highly Infectious Virus'

The novel coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 6,500 people and infected over 1,69,610.

Floating in the air are conspiracy theories and ¡®predictions¡¯ regarding the outbreak. Of course, there are speculations that The Simpsons predicted the coronavirus outbreak, just like every other major happening in the world. A character in a 2017 Asterix Comic series (in France) was actually named 'Coronavirus'. Then a 1981 thrill novel by Author Dean Koontz eerily tells the story of a Chinese military lab creating a virus as part of its biological weapons programme.

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However, one ¡®predicition¡¯ that is freaking people out is that of Bill Gates. Amid conspiracy theories, one video of Bill Gates predicting the ¡®end of the world¡¯ by a virus is going insanely viral.

The clip is reportedly from a 2015 Ted conference and it shows the Bill Gates, the Microsoft Founder ¡®predicting¡¯ that the world would struggle with a 'highly infectious virus' in the coming years. The Ted conference took place around the time of the Ebola outbreak.

In the clip, he talks about how, as a kid, he feared a nuclear war as something that would destroy the world but that was not true anymore. He said, "If anything kills over ten million people in the next two decades, it's most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles but microbes. We have invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents. But we have invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic. We are not ready for the next epidemic.¡±

Bill Gates in 2015:

¡°Today, the greatest risk of global catastrophe...it¡¯s most likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war ¡ª not missiles but microbes.¡±pic.twitter.com/sgorlMfy9N

¡ª Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) March 6, 2020

Some might call this a prediction, but what this was, was a accurate deduction about which he was clearly right. The world has been so busy with economical growth and the fear of a nuclear war, countries did not prepare for an epidemic - the price of which can been seen being paid by Italy, US and Iran and more than 90 other countries.