Bill Gates has revealed that he predicts life will be back to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of 2022.
In an interview with Polish newspaper Gazeta and television broadcaster TVN24, 65-year-old Gates said of the pandemic: "This is an incredible tragedy."
This comes after he wrote in his recently-published book How To Avoid A Climate Disaster - The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need, Gates argued that the pandemic has undone two and a half decades of progress when it comes to disease.
In the video below, Gates predicts how the world will change by 2030:The Microsoft co-founder writes: "Globally, Covid-19 has undone decades of progress on poverty and disease.
"As governments moved to deal with the pandemic, they had to pull people and money away from other priorities, including vaccination programs.
"A study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that in 2020, vaccination rates dropped to levels last seen in the 1990s.
"We lost 25 years of progress in about 25 weeks."
He argued that wealthy nations need to invest more in healthcare and better prepare for the next pandemic, adding that Covid-hit economies should focus on solutions that not only do this but fight climate change simultaneously.
Gates believes that investing in the development of clean energy will create jobs and help to reduce emissions.
He continues: "The year 2020 was a huge and tragic setback. But I am optimistic that we will get Covid-19 under control in 2021.
"And I'm more optimistic that we'll make real progress on climate change - because the world is more committed to solving this problem than it has ever been."
Gates also argued that to avoid a climate disaster, we need to have zero greenhouse gas emissions, use our existing technology more efficiently, and create and roll out new technology that will help reduce emissions.
"The world needs to provide more energy so the poorest can thrive, but we need to provide that energy without releasing any more greenhouse gases."
"Now the problem seemed even harder. It wasn't enough to deliver cheap, reliable energy for the poor. It also had to be clean."
