Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that he thinks the world should be back to normal by the end of 2022 thanks to COVID-19 vaccines.

"This is an incredible tragedy," Gates said on the pandemic in an interview for Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and television broadcaster TVN24. The only good news so far has been access to the vaccines, he said.

But he remained cautiously optimistic, saying: "By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal."

Gates, a billionaire who stepped down as chairperson of Microsoft Corp in 2014, has committed at least $1.75 billion to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That includes support for some makers of vaccines, diagnostics and potential treatments.

The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower-income countries by the end of 2021.

Gates has previously expressed his astonishment at the conspiracy theories circulating about vaccines. He also made headlines for his pandemic prediction back in 2015 when he spoke at a TED talk titled "The next outbreak? We’re not ready".