Bill Gates warns world leaders that millions of people could be killed by bio-terrorism

The world richest man Bill Gates has warned that tens of millions of people could be killed by bio-terrorism in an attack more deadly than nuclear war.

 

Gates gave the warning at the Munich security conference in Germany on Saturday, February 18, 2017, where he noted that it was time to redirect some of the money the world spends on weapons to prepare for a looming threat: terrorists with pathogens.

"It's time to redirect some of the money the world spends on weapons to prepare for a looming threat: terrorists with pathogens.

Gates, who has spent the last 20 years funding a global health campaign, said: 

“We ignore the link between health security and international security at our peril” warning that the threat of bio-terrorism is "right up there with nuclear war and climate change." 

The Microsoft co-founder said it's now necessary for the world to prepare for what he considers to be one of its largest existential threats: the next pandemic.

"Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10 to 15 years" he said.

The most recent pandemic was even more deadly than that, he pointed out in reference to a flu outbreak that occurred naturally which killed between 50 million and 100 million people in 1918.

According to Gates, modern technology can help prevent such a large-scale death toll.

"The good news is that with advances in biotechnology, new vaccines and drugs can help prevent epidemics from spreading out of control," he said -- but that requires funding preventative research.

"I'm optimistic that a decade from now, we can be much better prepared for a lethal epidemic if we're willing to put a fraction of what we spend on defense budgets and new weapons systems into epidemic readiness," he said.