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---
title: Bill Gates: We Must Prepare Better for Future Pandemics
description: Bill Gates cautioned the globe to create technology-based action plan against future pandemics in a speech in Berlin for the GAVI alliance
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author: Sabrina Toppa
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article:published_time: 2015-01-28T08:59:37.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:09:32.434Z
article:section: Health
og:title: Bill Gates Warns of Future Pandemics
og:description: We must prepare for the next Ebola like we're preparing for war
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twitter:title: Bill Gates Warns of Future Pandemics
twitter:description: We must prepare for the next Ebola like we're preparing for war
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# Bill Gates Says We Must Prepare for Future Pandemics as for 'War'

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by 

[Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/)


## Sabrina Toppa


Jan 28, 2015 8:59 AM UTC

![Conference on vaccines and immunization](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf635b7fe2d3fdffc/69877c4b35ba6fa8eac06c2a/ap985550606358.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

American businessman Bill Gates speaks at a conference under the motto 'Reach every child' of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) in Berlin, Germany, 27 Janaury 2015.

American businessman Bill Gates speaks at a conference under the motto 'Reach every child' of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) in Berlin, Germany, 27 Janaury 2015. Bernd von Jutrczenka—AP

by 

[Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/)


## Sabrina Toppa


Jan 28, 2015 8:59 AM UTC

Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, has [cautioned](http://news.yahoo.com/world-must-prepare-war-against-global-pandemic-gates-041627810.html;%5Fylt=AwrTWf0WaMhUnRUA4SfQtDMD) that a technology-based action plan is needed to guard against future pandemics similar to how we “prepare ourselves for war.”

Gates, whose charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation disburses nearly $4 billion worldwide, urged the international community to apply lessons learned from the Ebola crisis to develop a plan for future outbreaks. One strategy would be to create volunteer teams able to respond quickly to a public health emergency, the Agence-France Presse reported.

“A more difficult pathogen \[than Ebola\] could come along, a form of flu, a form of SARS or some type of virus that we haven’t seen before,” Gates told the AFP.

“We don’t know it will happen but it’s a high enough chance that one of the lessons of Ebola should be to ask ourselves: are we as ready for that as we should be? A good comparison is that we prepare ourselves for war — we have planes and training and we practise.”

Gates outlined his fears in a speech in Berlin for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation alliance, which delivers vaccines to the Global South. His warning comes on the heels of a World Bank [statement](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-31013636) that the globe is “dangerously unprepared” for another public health emergency similar to the Ebola outbreak.

\[[_AFP_](http://news.yahoo.com/world-must-prepare-war-against-global-pandemic-gates-041627810.html;%5Fylt=AwrTWf0WaMhUnRUA4SfQtDMD)\]

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