Bill Gates warned of the pandemic threat years ago. In 2015, he stated in a TED Talk that humanity’s greatest danger is not nuclear war, but a pandemic.
Since then, Gates has called for more investment in disease prevention, including vaccine development, improved diagnostics, and training for response in simulation models – however, “not much has been done.”
Now as Covid-19 spreads globally, causing over half a million infections and at least 23,970 deaths, Bill Gates describes it as a “nightmare scenario” unfolding.
Notably, the United States has become the largest outbreak globally with nearly 84,000 infections and over 1,200 deaths. Gates also stated that many other countries have handled the pandemic better than the world’s number one power, such as Asian countries that experienced the SARS outbreak in 2003. They “responded best in this pandemic because their governments acted when the number of virus infections was very, very small,” Gates said.
In contrast, he believes the U.S. response has been slow and chaotic. The U.S. could have a better status if “we acted a little more like the countries that are doing best in this pandemic.”
Furthermore, Gates warns that the U.S. has not reached the peak of the pandemic, with many states still reporting a continuous rise in new infections. Therefore, the billionaire calls for stronger lockdown measures to prevent the virus’s spread and to avoid more fatalities. “Basically, the whole of America needs to do what some places in China have done.”
“It is incredibly painful to move to this level of social isolation; I call it shutting down… But until we are certain that the number of new infections is no longer rising, I doubt anyone will want to buy a house, buy a car, or go to restaurants. Right now, all people want is to protect the elderly.”
Returning to normal life in April is “unrealistic” for Americans, Bill Gates warns. Regarding schools, he believes they should remain closed until the next academic year. “There is still no light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to reopening by mid-April,” the billionaire noted.
(According to CNN)
