In his review of the year, Bill Gates predicts the ending time of pandemic amid fears of Omicron

While the entire world is grappling with the fear of the new Covid variant, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has come up with his words of optimism as he predicts the ending time of the pandemic. In his review of the year, which has been published on GatesNotes blog, Gates wrote, "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."

Deeming the Omicron variant as "concerning," he says that researchers are working to learn more and more about it and soon the world will have a lot more information. 

"It’s troubling any time a new variant of concern emerges, but I’m still hopeful that, at some point next year, COVID-19 will become an endemic disease in most places. Although it is currently about 10 times more lethal than flu, vaccines and antivirals could cut that number by half or more," he wrote in his blog.

Also read | Omicron variant 'almost certainly' not more severe than Delta: Top epidemiologist Anthony Fauci

He urged the world to take important lessons from Covid response that will make people better prepared next time.

He has appreciated the progress in terms of vaccines and said that it is remarkable. "The world has never made and distributed a vaccine for a disease faster than it did for COVID-19," Gates wrote. He further highlighted that he thinks the mRNA vaccines will be seen as the most consequential breakthrough of the pandemic. 

Apart from the pandemic, he wrote about several other topics including the container ship being stuck at the Suez canal and WHO's approval of the first Malaria vaccine.