Microsoft founder Bill Gates shared that is hopeful that the critical phase of the coronavirus pandemic will end in 2022.
"It might be foolish to make another prediction, but I think the acute phase of the pandemic will come to a close some time in 2022," Gates wrote in a review of the year, published on his GatesNotes blog.
The billionaire added that the end of the pandemic isn't as close as he had hoped because of the Delta variant and struggles with getting people fully vaccinated and while there is no question that the Omicron variant is concerning.
He pointed that the speed of detecting new variants, combined with developments in vaccines and antiviral drugs, led him to be hopeful that coronavirus would become an endemic disease in 2022.
"The world is better prepared to tackle potentially bad variants than at any other point in the pandemic so far," Gates stated.
"We caught this variant earlier than we discovered Delta because South Africa has invested heavily in genomic sequencing capabilities, and we’re in a much better position to create updated vaccines if they are needed," he noted.
The comments come as the Omicron variant, also known as B.1.1.529, is spreading across the world.
The billionaire shared that information on the Omicron variant – such as how well-existing vaccines or previous infections protect against it – will be available soon, as researchers, including those that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation support, work to learn more about it.
Gates stated that vaccines and antivirals could help reduce the lethality of coronavirus in the future.
"Communities will still see occasional outbreaks, but new drugs will be available that could take care of most cases, and hospitals will be able to handle the rest," he wrote.
"In a couple years, my hope is that the only time you will really have to think about the virus is when you get your joint COVID and flu vaccine every fall," he said.
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