Despite Omicron, Bill Gates predicts ‘acute phase’ of Covid-19 pandemic will end in 2022
- Bill Gates ‘optimistic’ about next year even as world deals with new Omicron variant
- He underestimated how tough it would be to convince people to take vaccines
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 Tuesday.
“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.
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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.”