The World Health Organization (WHO) recently gave an estimated date on when the pandemic will end. However, a study by the Bill Gates Foundation proposes a solution that will fast-track the end of the pandemic.
María Neira, director of the Department of Public Health, Environment and Climate Change of the WHO, said in a recent statement that the COVID-19 pandemic could be controlled by March 2022 as long as the immunization of countries with low vaccine coverage is achieved.
Neira, who made her statements to the Spanish broadcaster RAC1, noted, “Two years is a period that we set ourselves, and it will surely be a reasonable time. If we begin to vaccinate at the speed we have had so far, we could see, even earlier, the way out of this tremendous situation.”
However, vaccine availability in some countries remains low. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, also said in a statement that there is a “shocking inequality” as to the global distribution of vaccines. This, he said, is a “stain on our collective conscience.” Ghebreyesus then said that the challenge that the COVID-19 pandemic brought is to return to normality and learn from the crisis. Ghebreyesus pointed out, “I believe that the end is beginning to be more and more present, but when we come out of the pandemic, we must take advantage to be better and not forget these lessons.”
Bill Gates has a better solution, according to the study of his team. Recently, a report was published by the Gates Foundation saying, “The only real solution to this problem is to have factories that can produce enough doses of vaccines for everyone in 100 days. It is feasible.” In the report, Gates called on world leaders to make the necessary investments in developing and manufacturing long-term vaccines and in creating programs that will improve public health infrastructure, particularly in low-income countries.
Gates has made previous statements regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in the past. He even predicted the COVID-19 being under control by March 2021.
So far, COVID-19 has infected 229,005,549 people across the globe and claimed 4,701,437 lives, according to worldometer data.