Billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bill Gates, has said that the coronavirus vaccine is likely to be available sooner than the world expected.

Appearing on NBC Today Show on Friday, Gates said that there is evidence that this timeline may come to pass, though a vaccine takes over five years to develop, but the Covid-19 vaccine may come between 18-24 months.

“The best scientists [are] working hard on this,” Gates said.

“In fact, in the last few weeks, I’ve seen signs that we may get to the optimistic side of that time projection” for a vaccine.

The Microsoft founder called the coronavirus crisis “a nightmare,” saying that “the human-to-human respiratory spread is the scariest scenario.”

“I wish it had come, you know, five or 10 years later, then governments might have done the preparation to move quickly as a few governments did,” Gates said.

“Many countries decided that at the national level, they would orchestrate the testing” for the virus, he said.

“That hasn’t happened in the United States. It might not happen. But, you know, the access to tests is just, you know, chaotic.”