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As President, what Bill Gates would do to fight COVID-19

As President, what Bill Gates would do to fight COVID-19

By Shubham Sharma
Mar 26, 2020
01:05 pm
What's the story

The outbreak of COVID-19 is taking on a toll on healthcare systems established by countries like US and Italy. Thousands have died, and the rate of infections is not even close to slowing down any time soon. In a situation like this, Bill Gates, the co-founder of tech conglomerate Microsoft, has revealed what he would do if he were the US President.

Message

Message would be to maintain isolation for few weeks

Speaking with TED curator Chris Anderson, Gates emphasized that if he were the President, he would prioritize keeping people home. "The clear message [would be] that we have no choice [but] to maintain this isolation and that's going to keep going for a period of time," Gates said. "In the Chinese case, it was six weeks, so we have to prepare ourselves for that."

Impact

Isolation is the key to bring new cases down

Gates, who has repeatedly highlighted the value of shutdown and social distancing, noted that "if you're doing isolation well, within about 20 days you'll see those numbers [of new cases] really change...and that is a sign that you're on your way." He also said that, as President, he would tell people that "this is not going to be easy" for them, in any way.

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Here is Anderson's full conversation with Gates

Reaction

Response to President Trump's willingness to open up the country

Gates' clear message comes as an apparent reaction to President Trump's growing willingness to open up the country. In a recent Fox News town hall, the President said he wants to open up the country by Easter (April 12) and have "packed churches". However, health officials do not agree as the country doesn't appear close to getting the crisis under control.

Acknowledgement

Isolation would be economically disastrous but 'no middle ground'

Gates also acknowledged that isolation would be disastrous for the economy but clarified that "there really is no middle ground" here. "It's very tough to say to people, 'Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies.'..It's hard to tell people during an epidemic...that they should go about things knowing their activity is spreading this disease," he claimed.

Work

Gates has focused on healthcare for years

The comments from Gates come a few days after he said a 6-10-week-long shutdown would be enough to fight this outbreak and vaccines are in the process of being tested. The Microsoft co-founder has been involved in healthcare through the work being done by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, his non-profit organization. He also channeled plenty of his wealth into this organization.

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He warned about such a pandemic five years ago