While science has not yet succeeded in completely neutralizing the Covid, here is a new epidemic threatening the world and could, if nothing is done, plunge us into a new pandemic worse than the one known in 2020. Indeed , the sudden appearance of a few cases of monkeypox in the world are beginning to shake Western governments, which have already ordered thousands of doses of vaccines to deal with it.
The United States has already released 119 million dollars to vaccinate 13 million people. In Germany, 40,000 doses have been ordered. In Great Britain, the government announces that it has ordered 20,000 doses. In Belgium, 1,250 doses have been ordered. And Spain, where the first cases appeared, says it has ordered thousands of doses, but categorically refuses to reveal the amount of the deal made with the Bavarian Nordic laboratory, based in Denmark.
If, for the moment, no information is yet available on the origin of monkeypox, rumors are rife. For some, it would be spread by sexual relations between people of the same sex. For others, through contact between man and animals.
In any case, if so far neither of the two theses seems to have convinced, African scientists remain speechless and say they are surprised by the sudden appearance of a virus that they had not seen on the continent for 40 years. . In any case, this is the opinion of Chikwe Ihekweazu, former director of CDC Nigeria.
Indeed, questioned by the media Statnews.com, he did not mince his words. He laments the lack of will (on the part of the West, editor’s note) to cooperate with Nigeria when the first cases emerged in this country in 2017. “There has not been much interest in supporting this effort unfortunately”, he denounces.
Worse, Chikwe Ihekweazu expresses his total incomprehension in the face of the sudden appearance of hundreds of cases in a continent where monkeypox had yet been completely defeated. “When we saw the first cases emerge in Nigeria in 2017, cases out of nowhere, we were all very surprised. In a way, it lives up to the surprise felt today in the world. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, we recorded a plethora of cases in the Niger Delta and southern Nigeria. It is quite surprising to see that a virus which we had not seen for the past 40 years in Nigeria suddenly appeared and appeared in several places at the same time”, he wondered.
It would be interesting to point out that in Nigeria, in 2017, more than 240 confirmed cases of monkeypox were detected. But, as if by chance, they never interested the international press which, however, in 2020, implemented a real strategy of fear to make people accept the draconian measures (obligation to wear a mask, confinement, ban of assembly, closing of parliaments, schools, nightclubs, etc.) enacted by the leaders to fight against the Covid.
Faced with this situation, the real question to ask is whether we are not witnessing the prophecy of Bill Gates who, in February 2017, on the sidelines of a summit on security which took place in Berlin warned us in these terms: “whether by natural phenomenon or by terrorism, epidemiologists predict that an airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say it’s very likely to happen in the next 10 or 15 years”.
Addressing his audience, Bill Gates tried to calm things down, recalling that such a phenomenon had already occurred in the past. “It’s hard to think of a disaster of this magnitude, but it happened not that long ago. In 1918, a particularly virulent and deadly flu killed between 50 million and 100 million people,” he said.
And to add: “you are certainly wondering if these disasters exist. The fact that a global pandemic has not occurred in recent years does not mean that a deadly pandemic will not occur. Although the next pandemic will not be on the scale of 1918, it would be wise for us to consider the social and economic upheaval that would ensue if something like Ebola made its way to major cities.”
For Bill Gates, the international community must prepare to deal with epidemics in the same way as the army prepares for war. However, the boss of Microsoft believes that the new technology can help avoid this number of deaths on a very large scale.
“The good news is that with advances in biotechnology, new vaccines and drugs can prevent epidemics from spreading out of control. I remain optimistic that in a decade we will be much better prepared to deal with a deadly epidemic if we spend a fraction of our income on defense and weapons that can help fight epidemics,” he said.
It only took three years for time to prove the American billionaire right. We had Covid in 2020 and in 2022 monkeypox is knocking on our doors. It only remains to hope that science, which has already proven itself, can deliver us!