JAKARTA - The high number of positive COVID-19 patients in the United States (US) has made many people panic and worried. How could it not, if so far China has been in the top list of COVID-19 cases, now the US is reported to be the country with the most COVID-19 cases.
There are at least 142,178 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US, with 2,484 deaths and 4,559 recoveries. The number of patients is expected to continue to grow.
If everyone is shocked by the outbreak of this virus, but not Bill Gates. The CEO of Microsoft has been predicting it since 2015. Gates at that time took a lesson from the 2014 Ebola case in West Africa and said that the US and other countries in the world would not be ready for the pandemic that was coming.
"If anyone kills more than 10 million people in the next few decades, it is most likely a very contagious virus than war. Not missiles, but microbes," Gates said in 2015.
Now five years later, Bill Gates is back again to open his voice regarding the virus. In his interview with CNN, Bill Gates again warned that there is 'no more middle ground' in the fight against COVID-19.
Gates also suggested coordinated efforts to effectively shut down daily activities across the US to stop the spread of COVID-19 in order to minimize the long-term economic impact.
Bill Gates urged the US government to take further, more coordinated, controlled steps to effectively reverse the spread of the disease.
“We have entered a difficult time, if we do it right, we only need to do it once, for six to 10 weeks. "But it has to be the whole country," said Gates.
"This is kind of the nightmare scenario," says Bill Gates, who warned about the dangers of a pandemic in 2015. "[I] talked about how we needed to invest in new platforms so that we could quickly make diagnostics, make drugs and make vaccines to stop an epidemic. " #CNNTownHall pic.twitter.com/xPW182yCSR
- CNN (@CNN) March 27, 2020
"We also have to increase the level of testing and prioritize that testing dramatically to make sure we don't miss a single shutdown so that we can see that we can see the medical problems and actually stop them before there is a greater number of deaths," added Gates.
The interview with Bill Gates came hours after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US numbered more than 81,000, surpassing every other country in the world, including China, where the outbreak began.
Gates also commented on a statement from US President Donald Trump saying that the US would return to its original state in April. This is something that is impossible, especially since the number of COVID-19 in the US continues to increase. Therefore, isolation which is only carried out in the area is less effective.
"This closure approach cannot be just country-to-country, but on a national scale," added Gates.
Gates also acknowledges the high cost of the decision to completely shut down the country, but apart from that there is no better alternative.
This impressive new tool from @IHME_UW will help hospitals, policymakers, and the general public better understand and prepare for the # COVID19 response in the US https://t.co/tTd5tEtTRc
- Bill Gates (@BillGates) March 29, 2020
"Then we'll have economic problems that make you want to minimize the time (lockdown time). Countries have to do things differently or if they still think you can do it regionally it won't work. Cases will grow exponentially if they close. (The lockdown) was not carried out seriously, "he said
"Basically all states need to do what China is doing, where they have this infection," Gates said.
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