Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who urged world leaders to prepare for a pandemic in a 2015 TED talk, penned an op-ed for The Washington Post on how the US could emerge victorious in the first against the coronavirus pandemic.
Gates introduced a three-point plan based on expert consultations he had through his work with the Gates Foundation, which is funding research for a coronavirus treatment for the virus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19.
“There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus,” Gates wrote. “But the window for making important decisions hasn’t closed.”
“The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of COVID-19,” he continued.
As of March 31, the coronavirus has infected nearly 190,000 in the US, and the country-wide death toll has surpassed 4,000.
Gates said the first point is calling for a “consistent nationwide approach” to lockdowns that are being imposed to contain the spread of the disease in the country. He called the fact that some states are not being shut down completely a “recipe for disaster.”
“Because people can travel freely across state lines, so can the virus,” he wrote. “The country’s leaders need to be clear: Shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere. Until the case numbers start to go down across America – which could take 10 weeks or more – no one can continue business as usual or relax the shutdown.”
“Any confusion about this point will only extend the economic pain, raise the odds that the virus will return, and cause more deaths,” he added.
The Microsoft founder also called for the federal government to ramp up testing, and establishing a clear prioritization on who will be tested first, with the highest priority going to health care workers and first responders. Second would be “highly symptomatic people who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill and those who are likely to have been exposed,” Gates wrote.
The final step, as Gates outlined, would be to take a “data-based approach to developing treatments and a vaccine,” urging leaders to help by “not stoking rumors or panic buying.”
“As we’ve seen this year, we have a long way to go,” Gates concluded in the op-ed. “But I still believe that if we make the right decisions now, informed by science, data and the experience of medical professionals, we can save lives and get the country back to work.”
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