In a startling new study published by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a grim warning emerges: by 2050, tens of millions of lives could be lost to formidable “superbugs.” This alarming forecast highlights a troubling trend of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), particularly within aging populations, and mirrors the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. As researchers from the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project delve into data spanning over three decades, their findings raise urgent questions about healthcare systems and global health policies. With the highest projected casualties in densely populated regions like South Asia, the time to act is now—before these invisible threats turn into widespread devastation.
Tens of millions of people are set to perish at the hands of mysterious “superbugs” before 2050 according to a Bill Gates study published this week.
According to the study, the vast majority of the tens of millions of victims will be elderly people, mirroring the results of the Covid pandemic which almost exclusively killed off the elderly and infirm.
The study, published in the Lancet was conducted by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project, which was formed in 2017 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the Wellcome Trust.
GRAM’s striking predictions about future depopulation, which align with Bill Gates’ forecasts of significant population decline, have attracted increasing attention from researchers in recent years.
Gates-funded researchers used data from 204 countries and territories to produce estimates of deaths from 1990 to 2021, and forecasts running through to 2050.
Dr Tomislav Meštrović, assistant professor at University North in Croatia and an affiliate associate professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said the superbugs could wipe out huge numbers of elderly people in highly populated regions of the world.
“Approximately three-quarters of AMR infections are linked – for example, to hospital infections – and a rapidly ageing population also necessitates more hospital care,” he said.
“For example, you put in an IV [intravenous] line, it gets infected, you get bacteria in the blood, that bacteria is likely to be more resistant,” he said.
The Gates study projected that the highest numbers of future deaths will occur in South Asian countries, including major population centers in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
It also highlighted other regions, such as southern and eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, as areas of population reduction.
Bill Gates is on record admitting his plans to reduce the population using “vaccines and health care” in all of these densely populated regions of the developing world.
Global leaders are meeting in New York this month to discuss the superbugs, during the UN’s general assembly.
