A nationwide social isolation policy is necessary to slow the spread of coronavirus, and the federal government must set parameters on testing, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, who has warned of the threat of a global pandemic since 2015, believes.
"It'll help everyone get out of this more quickly and reduce the deaths and reduce the economic reduction if we implement these strong isolation measures on a countrywide basis," Gates told CBS News' Anthony Mason for an interview airing on "CBS This Morning" Thursday.
While most states in the country now have stay-at-home rules in place, the policies about what that means differ between states, and Gates said there should either be a federal order or strong pressure among governors so all 50 governors in the country understand the need to have lockdown orders.
"The sooner you start, the less cases you're going to have, and the sooner we can all go back to some level of normalcy," Gates said.
Further, he said the federal government must set priorities on testing, "as many as half of our tests are going to the people they shouldn't," and delaying results, even for healthcare workers, Gates said.
Gates warned in 2015 that the United States wasn't ready for its next epidemic, as "very little investment" was made into ramping up diagnostic capacities.
Gates added that the economy has been hurt, and he thinks "it's great" that Congress has taken action but probably more will need to be done.
"But, you know, the economy can return in a way that people who get sick and die cannot," said Gates.
Meanwhile, Gates said he hasn't spoken yet with President Donald Trump directly, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is trying to be as helpful as possible" and he's talked to the heads of pharmaceutical companies, and to several agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health about working together on a vaccine and drugs.
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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