An upcoming book from Bill Gates will delve into lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, what the world can do to stop future pandemics, his conversations with Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health leaders, and what it has been like to be the subject of conspiracy theories.
The book, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, will be published May 3 by Knopf and Penguin Random House.
“The last two years have caused unbelievable amounts of hardship around the world, and it’s not easy to feel optimistic when you’ve endured the misery that so many people have experienced,” Gates writes in a post previewing the book.
He adds, “But whenever I see the suffering that COVID has created–every time I read about the latest death toll or hear about someone who lost their job or drive by a school that is closed—I can’t help but think: We don’t have to do this again.”
It’s the second in a series of how-to books by Gates on preventing global calamities. The first, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, was published in February 2021.
The ensuing year has been a tumultuous one for Gates, including his divorce from Melinda French Gates and challenges encountered by the Gates Foundation-backed Covax initiative, in its effort to equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines.
Gates warned about the possibility of a COVID-like pandemic in a series of talks several years before it happened, in interviews and appearances including his 2015 TED talk, “The next outbreak? We’re not ready.”
“The world now understands how seriously we should take pandemics, and momentum is on our side,” Gates writes in his preview of the book. “No one needs to be convinced that an infectious disease could kill millions of people or shut down the global economy. If we make the right choices and investments, we can make COVID-19 the last pandemic.”