The next outbreak? We’re not ready | Bill Gates | TED

TED · 38.9M views · 2015-04-03 · 8:37

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Overview

Bill Gates's 2015 TED talk, given after the 2014 Ebola outbreak, argues the world is unprepared for the next fast-spreading epidemic. He calls for scenario planning, vaccine research, and trained health workers, in the way countries prepare for war.

On Hacker News

During COVID-19 HN commenters cited it as a prescient pandemic warning.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2020–2021

Topics

Medicine & infectious disease Futurism & technology and society

What people said

dgritsko · 2020-04 · Recommendation
Gates gave a prescient TED talk in 2015 [1] in which he describes the risk of a global pandemic and the general lack of preparedness. The Gates foundation has also been working for years to help eradicate diseases like polio and malaria [2][3]. Given his expertise in this area, it would seem worthwhile to listen to what he has to say rather than dismissing him as just a "billionaire industrialist." [1]: [VIDEO] [2]: [LINK] [3]: [LINK]
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digaozao · 2020-03 · Recommendation
We are not prepared, but there was people warning about it. See this Ted talk from Bill Gates, 5 years ago. It's impressive how the details are similar to coronavirus. [VIDEO]
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nindalf · 2021-04 · Reference
Yeah Bill Gates - terrible guy. Spending money trying to eradicate diseases that kill poor people. What's worse, here's him in 2015 ( [VIDEO] ) wasting money and faffing on about some pandemic. As if that's going to happen, and even if it does the pandemic won't affect rich countries in any way.
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Video by TED, played through YouTube.

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