The American business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates has predicted that the next great global threat to humanity will be bioterrorism.
The damage caused by an episode of these characteristics can reach unsuspected magnitudes, causing a large number of infections and deaths, and spreading panic on a global scale. For this reason Gates has said that we must strengthen our international cooperation and global health systems to ensure that the world is better prepared against biological threats.
It should be remembered that the founder of Microsoft already warned in 2015 of a possible pandemic for which society was not prepared. A prognosis that ended up being fulfilled at the end of 2019 with the coronavirus, and four years later, one of the situations that continues to paralyze several countries.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is suspected that if this bioterrorist attack were to take place, it would be carried out with the bacterium that causes anthrax, that can seriously affect humans and animals.
In fact, anthrax was the cause of one of the most famous terrorist attacks in recent history. This event occurred in 2001 when letters dusted with anthrax were sent at random, which caused the death of five people, while infecting 22 others.
Keys to avoid a possible pandemic
In his book ‘How to Prevent the Next Pandemic’, Gates details the keys to keep in mind in the future to avoid a possible new pandemic to hit the world. Among other things, he talks about creating a special group of scientists and a more equitable distribution of vaccines. In addition, it proposes the creation of a library of antivirals to combat common respiratory viruses, the expansion of incentives for generic manufacturers to create low-cost versions of new drugs and innovation in the diagnosis and detection of viruses.
According to the Department of Justice, they are considered Weapons of Mass Destruction under Statute Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2332a and include “any weapons involving a disease organism.”
However, the agent does not have to be a biological agent, only that the “agent is capable of causing biological malfunction, disease, or death in a living organism.”
In relation to all this, he has assured that it is a real threat that we are not paying enough attention to. In the same way that climate change is beginning to be considered, the billionaire believes that we must be alert to this threat to global security.
Interpol, based on currently available information, reveals that individuals, terrorist groups and criminals have the ability and will to use biological agents to cause harm to society .
And it is that there is more and more data and knowledge available on the Internet, and criminals resort to hidden and anonymous communication channels, such as the Deep Web , to buy, sell and exchange information and to communicate with each other.
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