Bill Gates called for a national lockdown in a Washington Post op-ed in which he laid out three steps to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Said Gates: “Because people can travel freely across state lines, so can the virus. 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.”
Gates also called for the U.S. government to step up testing and develop “a data-based approach to developing treatments and a vaccine.”
“In 2015, I urged world leaders in a TED talk to prepare for a pandemic the same way they prepare for war — by running simulations to find the cracks in the system,” Gates added. “As we've seen this year, we have a long way to go. 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.”
Gates's 2015 Ted Talk:
