In a series of Twitter posts, Bill Gates says he plans to cancel most of his vacation plans and warned that the United States "could get into the worst part of the pandemic."
Claiming that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than any virus in history, the billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft said that the great unknown remains what symptoms the Omicron variant can cause.
"We have to take it seriously until we know more about it. Even if it is lighter than Delta, it will cause the largest number of infections we have seen so far," Gates said.
Gates also expects the wave to last three months in the United States.
Through the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Bill Gates has tried to close the vaccine gap, noting that far fewer people in low-income countries have received a Covid-19 vaccine.
He said in an article for CNN in October that the gap will become harder to close because the world's richest governments are buying extra doses of the vaccine.
