--- 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 canonical: https://time.com/3685490/bill-gates-ebola-pandemics/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free 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 og:url: https://time.com/3685490/bill-gates-ebola-pandemics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf635b7fe2d3fdffc/69877c4b35ba6fa8eac06c2a/ap985550606358.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Conference on vaccines and immunization og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Gates Warns of Future Pandemics twitter:description: We must prepare for the next Ebola like we're preparing for war twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf635b7fe2d3fdffc/69877c4b35ba6fa8eac06c2a/ap985550606358.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Gates Says We Must Prepare for Future Pandemics as for 'War' by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Jan 28, 2015 8:59 AM UTC  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. \[[_AFP_](http://news.yahoo.com/world-must-prepare-war-against-global-pandemic-gates-041627810.html;%5Fylt=AwrTWf0WaMhUnRUA4SfQtDMD)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3685490/bill-gates-ebola-pandemics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3685490/bill-gates-ebola-pandemics/"},"headline":"Bill Gates Says We Must Prepare for Future Pandemics as for 'War'","datePublished":"2015-01-28T08:59:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:09:32.434Z","description":"The Microsoft boss warns the Ebola crisis was just the beginning","url":"https://time.com/3685490/bill-gates-ebola-pandemics/","keywords":["Technology","Bill Gates","Berlin","ebola","pandemic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf635b7fe2d3fdffc/69877c4b35ba6fa8eac06c2a/ap985550606358.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf635b7fe2d3fdffc/69877c4b35ba6fa8eac06c2a/ap985550606358.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Conference on vaccines and immunization","caption":"Conference on vaccines and immunization","creditText":"Bernd von Jutrczenka—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3685490/bill-gates-ebola-pandemics/","name":"Bill Gates Says We Must Prepare for Future Pandemics as for 'War'"}}]}] ```