US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Bill Gates, co-founder and former head of Microsoft, called on people to remain calm in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Recently, the billionaire posted on Twitter a photo with the caption: “I work from home,” after which he answered questions from Reddit users about social distance, creating a vaccine and the economic consequences of coronavirus.
Gates was asked how long the pandemic would last. Gates believes that to effectively combat Covid-19 in the United States, quarantine for up to 10 weeks and testing are needed. Bill Gates said that in this case there will be very few cases of the disease and the United States will have the opportunity to re-open to the world.
Gates has been working on health issues for many years as part of the nonprofit Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates recently announced that he is leaving the board of directors of Microsoft, which he founded in 1975, and Berkshire Hathaway. He said he wants to focus more on philanthropy.
At the end of January, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would donate $ 10 million to fight against coronavirus, and a few days later increased this amount to $ 100 million.
The fund’s statement said that up to $ 20 million will go to identify, isolate and care for the sick, $ 20 million will go to the health authorities of Asia and Africa to develop emergency centers and take disease surveillance measures.
The remaining $ 60 million will be spent on creating a vaccine.
Microsoft co-founder said that with the right actions, including testing and social distance for 2-3 months, developed countries should avoid high levels of infection. Gates believes that economic damage will be greater in developing countries, where the capacity of hospitals is much lower, and social distance is as effective as in developed countries.
In response to a question about what Americans can do to help other people in the country, Bill Gates urged only to remain calm, despite the circumstances.
Last year, during a similar Q&A session at Reddit, Gates was asked to name the main threat to humanity. He pointed out major unlikely incidents, including a pandemic. Gates remembered the Spanish flu epidemic, which was most likely the most massive flu pandemic in human history, both in terms of the number of people infected and the number of deaths.
Gates noted that the ability of people to move around the world in modern conditions contributes to a more rapid spread of infections than was observed in the last century.
“We must be able to very quickly expand the scope of diagnostics, drugs and vaccines,” Gates said. “There are technologies that will do it well if the right investments are made. Countries can work together. We created the CEPI = Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, which has done some work in the field of vaccines, but which needs to be funded at a higher level to have standby facilities for the whole world.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has paid for the purchase of 15,000 drug molecules for testing as a potential cure for coronavirus, writes The Guardian, citing the Belgian publication De Standaard.
Molecules, which are the active ingredients of modern antiviral drugs, were purchased from the Scripps Research Institute in California. Experts hope to identify ingredients that can inhibit the activity of the new virus.
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Note: We used the word “predictor” referring his speech back in 2015.
https://ordonews.com/must-watch-bill-gates-talking-about-coronavirus-back-in-2015/
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