Bill Gates’s plan to prevent the next pandemic

According to new estimates from the World Health Organisation this week, the covid-19 pandemic led to nearly 15m excess deaths between 2020 and 2021. The tally from countries’ official statistics stands at just 5.4m. The Economist’s own model projects that covid caused about 18m excess deaths in the same period.Bill Gates’s career-switch from entrepreneur and philanthropist to crusading author is developing nicely. It is just over a year since he published “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”. Now Mr Gates is back with “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic”. Our Babbage podcast on science and technology features an interview with Mr Gates on his views on stopping new pathogens from becoming health emergencies. In the Culture section of the weekly edition, we explain why his proposals are worth exploring. In Britain people in care homes suffered disproportionately from covid measures. Residents went for weeks or months without seeing loved ones. Many died alone. As vaccination rates have climbed, deaths from covid have fallen, but as we report in our Britain section, life in care homes is still full of restrictions. Zanny Minton Beddoes Editor-in-chief The Economist