Bill Gates knows a lot about diseases. For many years, he has been focused on stopping malaria, and now he has decided to answer several questions about the pandemic we are experiencing on Reddit.
Recall that Bill Gates already warned us in 2015 about what was going to happen, he did a TED talk on the subject that has gone viral these days, so he does not lack knowledge.
In TC, they have made a relatively complete summary of the subject, and here we leave you with 10 of their best phrases to serve as a summary of a review.
- We need to democratize and scale the coronavirus testing system with a website that people can access and enter their situation. Thousands of tests a day are being provided in several places in the United States, but no one is connected to a national monitoring system.
- There are more than six different efforts to make a vaccine. Some use a new approach called RNA that is untested. We will have to build many models of vaccines, knowing that some of them will not work. We will need billions of vaccines to protect the world. Vaccines require tests to make sure they are safe and effective. The first vaccines will go to health workers and critical workers, something that could happen before 18 months if everything goes well.
- I am concerned about all the economic damage but even worse will be how this will affect developing countries that cannot make social distancing in the same way as rich countries and whose hospital capacity is much less. The only model known to work is a serious effort at social distancing ("closure"). If you don't do this, the disease will spread to a high percentage of the population, and your hospitals will be overloaded with cases.
- With the right actions, including tests and social distancing in 2-3 months, rich countries should have avoided high levels of infection.
- At the Foundation we are working to see if we can send test kits to people at home so that they do not have to go out and that the tests reach the people who are the priority.
- It is a big problem that schools close in the coming months. There are many online resources for Khan Academy and Scholastic. Comcast and other Internet connectivity providers are making unique programs to help with access. Microsoft and others are working to help with the issue, but the supply chain is quite limited. Unfortunately, low-income students will be more affected by the situation than others, so we need to help in any way we can.
- Eventually, we will have some digital certificates to show who recently recovered or was tested, or when we have a vaccine, who received it.
- Our Foundation is working with all groups that perform diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines to ensure that the right efforts are prioritized. We want to make sure that all countries have access to these tools. We donated $ 100 million in February for a variety of things, and we will do more. A priority is to ensure that there is sufficient manufacturing capacity for therapies and vaccines.
- We created CEPI = Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation that worked a bit on vaccines but needs to be funded at a higher level to have the world's standby manufacturing capacity.
- I think that after this is under control, governments and others will invest a lot in being ready for the next one. This will require global cooperation, mainly to help developing countries that will be most affected.
A great man with a great vision who can help a lot in moments like this.
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