Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, people across the world have rushed to "panic buy" and stockpile food and toilet paper, fearing potential shortages.

But Bill and Melinda Gates began to stockpile food in their basement years before the current pandemic.

A number of years ago, we talked about, 'What if there wasn't clean water? What if there wasn't enough food? Where might we go? What might we do as a family?' So, I think we should leave those preparations to ourselves," Melinda Gates told BBC Radio Live on Thursday.

"We had prepared, and had some food in the basement in case needed, and now we're all in the same situation," she said.

Melinda said they could not prepare with a particular drug or vaccine, of course, as "there are no tools" for Covid-19.

"This is a disease we're all in together," she said on BBC Radio.

But she also acknowledged her family's privilege.
"What we mostly talk about now in our home every night is how lucky we are. We understand our privilege. When we say our grace at night, what we're thankful for around the table, is that we aren't struggling to put a meal on the table as so many families around the world are," Melinda said.

As far back as 2010, Bill Gates warned of a looming pandemic in a blog post after the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.

In April 2018, Bill said the world wasn't prepared for such an event, which should "concern us all," he said at an event hosted by the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

"The world needs to prepare for pandemics in the same serious way it prepares for war," he said.

Bill had been preparing for war since he was a kid – growing up during the Cold War, his family had a barrel in their basement "filled with cans of food and water."

"When I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a nuclear war. When the nuclear attack came, we were supposed to go downstairs, hunker down, and eat out of that barrel," he said in a 2015 Ted Talk. "Today the greatest risk of global catastrophe doesn't look like [nuclear war]. Instead, it looks like [an infectious virus]."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed more than $250 million toward Covid-19 relief efforts across the world.


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Following

Awon demon, how did u guys know?

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Tolani0167:
Awon demon, how did u guys know?

They planned ahead as many smart thinking do.

You are asking how a programmer who happened to be the richest man in the world predicted the possibility of a pandemic and prepared himself for it.

The questions people ask sometimes are rather befuddling.

If I still dey alive and get money in the next ten years, na underground bunker me go reason for villa sef.

Jokes apart,this family is weird.

rusher14:


They planned ahead as many smart thinking do.

You are asking how a programmer who happened to be the richest man in the world predicted the possibility of a pandemic and prepared himself for it.

The questions people ask sometimes are rather befuddling.

That is the picture of an African thought process.
Less thinking more of worrying.

Education, Experience, Excess Cash

I watched a Ted talk Bill gave, he mentioned he grew up a Prepper.

DanseMacabre:
If I still dey alive and get money in the next ten years, na underground bunker me go reason for villa sef.

What happened to today or tomorrow?

People have their wahala. Who would think a man capable of buying anything man-made will care to survive an apocalypse. The man is not physically capable of fighting off hordes of looters. Let’s see how long he can stay holed up during such a scenario.

Strategic thinking and wealth. Good combination.

The holy book says Wisdom is a defence, Money also is a defence.

Imagine a situation where you have both.