When we think of major catastrophes that have killed humans on a massive scale, we would easily conjure up images of a nuclear attack, major earthquake or an asteroid striking the earth – wiping off millions of people from the face of the earth. Many of the most horrible imaginations we think of are partly forged by Hollywood – the movies we see on the big screens, which then makes us think that millions of human can be exterminated by a giant flash of fireballs -But, Bill Gates does not concur with the general public on this perception, according to Time Magazine.
The world’s richest man thinks that the greatest threat to humankind in the next 20 years that can result in over 20 million humans being wiped off the face of the earth is diseases. The 59 year old billionaire spoke his mind at a recent interview with Vox saying there is at least 50% chance of this happening in his lifetime, where massive numbers of humans can perish due to diseases. Bill Gates may be right when we look at the historical records on how epidemics have impacted human death toll.
The Influenza epidemic of 1918 killed over 50 million people wiping off one fifty of the world’s population at that time. It killed more people than the First World War which happened around that time with the toll of 16 million.
The Bubonic Plague or ‘Black Death’ in the 14th century Europe killed an estimated 25 million people.
Our most recent memory of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed 11,184 (official figure from World Health Organization) though the world health body said that the actual figure is much higher as many deaths were not reported or hushed up. The Ebola outbreak would have claimed more lives continent-wide if not because of the aggressive measures taken to contain the viral transmission via quarantine and education instead of the traditional approaches.
“The Ebola epidemic showed me that we’re not ready for a serious epidemic, an epidemic that would be more infectious and would spread faster than Ebola did. This is the greatest risk of a huge tragedy,” Gates said.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have spent a substantial amount of money to combat diseases, particularly in the African continent.
