Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder said early this week that the United States has missed its opportunity to elude the mandated business closures as it did not make a move quickly enough on the COVID-19 pandemic. In a TED Connects program which was broadcasted online, Gates said, the US missed this chance to control the pandemic without the shutdown.
He added that this country, "did not act fast enough" to be able to prevent the shutdown from occurring. The company executive also said it was in January this year when everyone would have been on warning. COVID-19 was originally discovered in China, in December 2019.
From then on, government leaders across the nation have advised or mandated the residents to stay home to prevent infectious disease from spreading fast.
To date, COVID-19 has already infected at least 54,973 and killed 784 people in the US. Relatively, many locations which include New York City, Washington D.C. and California, have mandated all non-essential businesses to stop operations temporarily.
Consequently, unemployment claims have surged, and markets have hit their respective multi-year lows since the widespread pandemic.
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Businesses to Open by Easter
US President Donald Trump said early this week that he wants firms to open by April 12, Easter, to soften the economic effect. In relation to this, the government officials, as well as the health experts, have strongly criticized such calls, cautioning that having people return to work will overpower the health-care system, not to mention, result in more fatalities.
In addition, Gates recognized that self-isolation would be devastating for the nation's economy. Nevertheless, he added, "There really is no middle ground." The Microsoft co-founder also suggested a six- to 10-week shutdown.
In times like this, according to Gates, it's quite tough to tell the people to keep going and eating at restaurants, purchase new properties and pay no attention to the pile of bodies in one corner. Indeed, the tech expert added that it is hard to tell the public this, during an epidemic.
He also put emphasis on the need for the US to ramp up its testing abilities for COVID-19, and navigate further, who among the people, really need to undergo the testing.
Unfortunately, he said, the country doesn't still have that capacity and is still not applying it to those who need the test.
Gates' Long-Time Focus on the Field of Health
Gates has long been focused on the field of health, within his initiative at the nonprofit Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Incidentally, Gates hosted a session entitled, "Ask Me Anything," last week, via a discussion forum on Reddit to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier on, Gates, during his 2015 TED Talk, warned that the world should prepare more for a pandemic, (now identified as the COVID-19). In this talk, he said, "we have actually invested very little in a system" to control or block an epidemic. The world, he added, is not prepared for the next epidemic.
