Microsoft founder Bill Gates warned during a 2015 TED talk, given in the wake of the then-Ebola pandemic, that a highly infectious virus in the future would prove more deadly to humans than a war — now, he thinks the novel coronavirus that has already killed almost 200,000 people worldwide is that disease.
"The human-to-human respiratory spread is the nightmare," Gates told NBC News' "Today" anchor Savannah Guthrie. "I wish it had come five to ten years later, then governments might have done the preparation to move quickly like a few governments did and the technologies would have been further along."
Gates was optimistic that a vaccine could be approved in record speed for COVID-19, but warned that access to coronavirus in the United States remains "chaotic."
Most countries decided they would orchestrate testing for the virus at a national level, said Gates, but in the United States, that hasn't happened and "might not happen," and that leaves access to tests "just, you know, chaotic."
However, there is evidence that an 18 to 24 months timeline for a coronavirus vaccine may be coming true, Gates, whose foundation has dedicated millions of dollars in the fight against the disease, said.
"Usually a vaccine takes over five years because you have many steps," Gates told Guthrie. "The best scientists are working hard on this. In fact, in the last few weeks, I've seen signs that we may get to the optimistic side of that time projection."
Gates on Friday also posted a lengthy post on his Linked In blog concerning scientific advances that are needed to stop the COVID-19 spread.
In it, Gates said there are many questions that must be answered, including if the disease is seasonal or weather dependent; why some people are more infected than others; why younger people have a lower risk of becoming seriously ill; what symptoms indicate you should get tested; which activities cause the most risk of infection; and who is more susceptible to the disease.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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