Gates stressed that the spread of the omicron strain in a particular country puts serious pressure on its health care system.
“The majority of severe cases of the disease will occur in unvaccinated people,” he said.
At the same time, he stressed that thanks to the omicron option, many will develop immunity to the coronavirus, which will last for at least a year.
“As soon as an outbreak of omicron-strain infections takes place in a particular country, there will be a decrease in the number of infections during the year, and COVID-19 can be treated as a seasonal flu,” Gates believes.
“Sooner or later we may come to the point that we will need to be vaccinated against coronavirus once a year,” he believes.
According to Gates, at the moment there are no prerequisites for the appearance of a more contagious strain of infection, but the possibility of its occurrence should not be excluded.
In December 2021, WHO expert Maria van Kerkhove expressed hope that the coronavirus pandemic would be ended in 2022.
In turn, the Geneva headquarters of the organization stated in an exclusive comment for TASS that despite the appearance of omicron, a strain of coronavirus characterized by a higher rate of spread than other strains, by mid-2022 it is realistic to achieve the goal of vaccinating at least 70% of the population in all countries of the world.