Bill Gates: ‘We could be entering the worst part of the pandemic’

Bill Gates announced Tuesday that he has canceled most of his holiday plans due to the Omicron Covid variant.

“Just when it seemed like life would return to normal, we could be entering the worst part of the pandemic,” Gates tweeted on Tuesday. “Omicron will hit home for all of us. Close friends of mine now have it, and I’ve canceled most of my holiday plans.”

Just when it seemed like life would return to normal, we could be entering the worst part of the pandemic. Omicron will hit home for all of us. Close friends of mine now have it, and I’ve canceled most of my holiday plans.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 21, 2021

Gates said Omicron “is spreading faster than any virus in history” and “will soon be in every country in the world.”

“It won’t be like this forever. Someday the pandemic will end, and the better we look after each other, the sooner that time will come.”

“The big unknown is how sick omicron makes you,” Gates continued. “We need to take it seriously until we know more about it. Even if it’s only half as severe as delta, it will be the worst surge we have seen so far because it’s so infectious.”

Gates also expects the wave to last three months in the United States.

“If there’s good news here, it’s that omicron moves so quickly that once it becomes dominant in a country, the wave there should last less than 3 months,” he tweeted. “Those few months could be bad, but I still believe if we take the right steps, the pandemic can be over in 2022.”

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