I FIRST heard Bill Gates predicting a serious pandemic around five years ago. Through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation billions of dollars have been spent on research into pandemics. He must be regarded as being an authority. His attitude about the present pandemic is that we must take it as a warning and learn from it.

Among the lessons we must learn is the need for a global approach, including a Global Response System. We know from history that pandemics will strike from time to time. Gates warns that the next one could be worse and sooner than we expect.

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We have been hit hard this time but are already becoming complacent, with many people only seeing it as a nuisance because they can’t get their hair cut or go on holiday to some sunny beach resort.

A major problem has already arisen with the rich countries playing the “we’re all right Jack” card. There is a real reluctance to share the vaccines with the disadvantaged poorer countries. In truth the only way to defeat a pandemic is to attack it on an organised global level. There is no point in believing that as long as all of our population has been vaccinated then we are safe.

There is some increased concern that the South African and Brazilian variants are more easily spread and make more people seriously ill with an increased death rate.

South Africa has a population about the same as England and Wales combined yet they have only had 44,399 deaths. That is amazing when you think that millions of South Africans live in dire poverty with no real sanitation as we know it. Millions of them live cheek by jowl in townships with no access to anything remotely like our NHS.

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Something else they have is HIV/Aids. Last year there were 76,000 deaths caused by Aids, and this was the lowest death rate for years. There are several other serious diseases rampant in South Africa which people have to live (and die) with because of the lack of a modern health system. All this means that South Africa has many people with underlying health issues that make them susceptible to Covid.

A high percentage of South Africans have been infected with the Covid virus but their natural immune systems allow them to fight the virus successfully. If not there would be the millions of deaths that the government had expected.

Brazil has had a similar experience, with millions of its population living in poverty in squalid Favelas.

Perhaps we are lucky that the South African and Brazilian variants are not including a new HIV mutation spread by droplet. Who’s to say that the next pandemic will not be as potentially dreadful as that hellish possibility.

Meanwhile let’s pray that the scientists are able to defeat the present pandemic with the help of us all. Then let’s do as Bill Gates advises and get prepared for the next one. Apocalyptic but true.

Harry Key
Largoward

BORIS Johnson’s recent “essential business” trip to Scotland came as Brexit Britain struggles with a Covid death toll of more than 100,000, recorded as the highest in Europe and fourth-highest in the world. A year of scientific and WHO advice not being acted upon early enough by a hesitant UK Government indicates a failure of political leadership.

Countries that imposed early lockdown and travel restrictions were able to contain this deadly virus, avoiding many more deaths. New Zealand, with around the same population as Scotland, has only recorded 25 Covid deaths compared to more than 6,000 in Scotland.

The sadness is that, no matter how quickly the vaccine is now delivered, the mismanagement of this pandemic has resulted in so many more lives lost.

Grant Frazer
Newtonmore