Bill Gates, the billionaire and founder of Microsoft, believes COVID-19 will be handled more like the seasonal flu once the world has recovered from the omicron variant.
“As countries experience their Omicron wave, health systems will be challenged. But, unfortunately, most of the severe cases will be unvaccinated people,” Gates wrote on Twitter during a Q&A session with Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
“Once Omicron goes through a country, then the rest of the year should see far fewer cases so Covid can be treated more like seasonal flu.”
On Monday, the United States reported 1.5 million new COVID-19 cases, setting a new record for virus-related hospitalizations. However, White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci expects the current climb will reach a dip by the end of January.
On Tuesday, Fauci informed J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, that omicron will “ultimately find about everyone.” According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, people who have undergone vaccines and boosters should cope “reasonably well.”
The United States is engaged in a historic battle against the coronavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 62.7% of the population in the US has been completely vaccinated, with 37 percent getting a booster dose.
Gates stated on Wednesday that any more transmissible variant is unlikely, though he admitted that “we’ve been surprised a lot during this pandemic.”
“Omicron will create a lot of immunity,” Gates added, saying that the world “might have to take yearly doses for Covid for some time.”