The unprecedented and unpredictable COVID-19 global pandemic has exposed how unprepared the world is for emergencies, iconic investor Warren Buffett said on Tuesday.

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“It’s not over,” the 90-year-old investor told CNBC. “I mean, in terms of the unpredictability...it’s been very unpredictable, but it’s worked out better than people anticipated for most people and most businesses. And it’s just, for no fault of their own, it’s just decimated all kinds of people and their hopes.”

Buffett predicted the occurrence of another pandemic as well as nuclear, chemical, biological, and cyber threats with horrible possibilities and consequences.

People don’t know as much as they think they know, Buffett said, adding that pandemics worse than that of 2020 can occur or can be imagined.

Society seems to be incapable of coming to terms with sudden, random, unanticipated, and unexpected emergencies; and has a horrible time preparing for such situations, he added.

The pandemic has led to unequal after-effects hurting small businesses badly even as most large companies have done reasonably well, Buffett pointed out.

Buffett said that he and his business partner Charlie Munger (vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathway) have been “ungodly lucky” in many ways but being around during the global pandemic times has been the luckiest thing for them.

Munger added that some small businesses have created wonderfully amazing success stories during these testing times.

Buffett said that it will be interesting to see how humans get it right so that they enjoy a better life 50, 100, and 200 years in the future.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported a total of 3.93 million deaths across the world as of June 29. There were 309,048 new cases reported and 181.18 million total confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, as per the WHO. As of 27 June 2021, a total of 2.66 billion vaccine doses have been administered.

India, on the contrary, logged 45,951 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,03,62,848, while daily fatalities remained below 1,000 for the third consecutive day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

First Published:Jun 30, 2021 3:00 PM IST