Pestilence

Bill Gates launches $12M challenge for universal flu vaccine - UPI.com
UPI reports: "Billionaire Bill Gates has announced a $12 million Grand Challenge to fund research of universal flu vaccines in preparation for the next flu pandemic. [...] The past 20 years has seen spread of severe acute upper respiratory syndrome, or SARS; H1N1 or swine flu), Ebola and Zika. The announcement comes 100 years after the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic killed 50 million people around the globe. In the United States, it killed about 675,000 people in the first five weeks after it reached the nation. If a highly contagious and lethal airborne pathogen like the 1918 flu were to occur today, more than 33 million people worldwide would die in 250 days, according to a simulation by the Institute for Disease Modeling."

Comment: Good for him, hopefully the grant money will allow scientists to made some real progress on a universal flu vaccine.