Bill Gates a year ago: A virus that can explode in China can kill 33 million people

Microsoft's owner warned that the world was at risk of super-patogens spreading rapidly across our planet and that we should prepare for it as we would for war.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Massachusetts Medical Society, Gates said he was an optimist, and there was an area that the world wasn't “making much progress”.

He said: “and this is pandemic readiness. “In the case of biological threats, the sense of urgency is missing. The world must prepare for pandemics in the same serious way that it prepares for war”, transmitsgraphy.

During the conference, billionaire philanthropy found a comprehensive study of the Institute for Disease Modeling, which determined how quickly a new disease can spread.

A video over time explained how a potential explosion in China could then spread rapidly throughout the planet, eventually killing 33 million people.

Now a year later, after appearing in the Chinese city of Huhan, the world has faced the deadly coronavirus.

He has continued the global march, with the number of nations affected almost doubled overnight.

Confirmed cases have increased dramatically in China alone, officials said.

Vietnam, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong have all confirmed cases alongside the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

However, officials agreed that the committee was split almost 50-50.

Meanwhile, it is said that 20 large Chinese cities are closing with over 56 million people “in quarantine”.

Officials have limited trips to the Huhan virus pit, which is home to 11 million people, as well as the Huangang, Ejou and Lichuan neighbours.

Preliminary research suggested that coronavirus was passed on to people from snakes to the Huhan market.

Michael Ryan, head of WHO's emergency programme, said nearly three-quarters of confirmed cases were among people over 40, with four out of ten having basic health conditions.

Experts have warned that it could result as deadly as the Spanish flu, which claimed the lives of 50 million people.

Fearing that the spread could further increase by millions of trips to China for the Chinese New Year's celebrations that began Friday.

But the World Health Organization last night refused to announce a global public health emergency, saying it was a very early “”./Telegraphy/