Bill Gates: “We have not peaked” and the US needs more lockdowns
CNN
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates joined CNN’s global town hall to speak about the coronavirus pandemic and what needs to be done.
He’s been warning about the risks of a pandemic for years. Back in 2015, during a TED Talk, he warned that the greatest threat we face isn’t nuclear war, but a pandemic.
Since then, he has called for more funding in pandemic preparation, vaccine and diagnostic development, and simulation training – but “not much has happened.”
“This is kind of the nightmare scenario,” he said of the coronavirus pandemic.
Other countries have done better than the US: The countries hard hit by SARS in 2003, like those in Asia, “are the ones that have done best in this epidemic because they acted when the number of cases were still very, very small,” Gates said.
The US response, in contrast, has been slow and chaotic, he added. We might be better off now if we had “behaved a little bit like the countries that have done the best on this one.”
And it’s not over yet. “We have not peaked,” he warned, calling for more dramatic lockdowns to prevent further infections and deaths.
“Basically the whole country needs to do what was done in the part of China where they had these infections,” he added.
Will there be relief for independent contractors under stimulus package?
Your questions, answered
The $2 billion stimulus bill does include financial relief for independent contractors, according to CNN’s Richard Quest.
Quest discussed the details of the stimulus package Thursday night during CNN’s coronavirus town hall. The discussion was prompted by a question from viewer Cheryl O’Brien.
“Yes, in general, during the period individuals who operate under a sole partnership or as an independent contractor shall be eligible for a covered loan. Now, it’s not a grant, it’s a loan. From what I’ve been hearing, people trying to get in touch with authorities, it’s a lot of bureaucracy getting through. But yes, Cheryl, sole proprietors and independent contractors are covered as if they were employees,” Quest said.
The economy should be recovered and running by next year, says CNN business editor
CNN
The US economy and markets worldwide have been slammed by the coronavirus pandemic, with people halting work, businesses closing, and certain industries like aviation and food service hit particularly hard.
The economy is in recession— but it’s temporary, and will recover, said CNN anchor and business editor Richard Quest on CNN’s ongoing town hall.
In 2008, the national recession lasted all four quarters — “but we don’t expect anything like that this time round for the simple reason that the economy has been artificially stopped and it will be started up again hopefully in the second quarter at some point,” Quest said. “By Q3, you should be seeing a recovery.”
He warned that tens of thousands of businesses may fail in the coming quarters — but recovery will return.
“But for most people in work, when their companies restart, they will be taken back in again. The economy will get back up and running again. I think by next year, by the beginning of next year, you’ll be looking at good growth,” he said.
We don’t have enough data and don’t know when this pandemic will end, warns top health expert
D Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, joined CNN’s town hall tonight to address the coronavirus pandemic.
He also answered questions from viewers concerned about the outbreak.
Here are some of those questions and his responses:
Q: Why is the President suggesting a pullback when numbers are rising so rapidly?
“I think what the President was trying to do, he was making an aspirational projection to give people some hope,” Fauci said.
“When you have a situation when the cases today compared to tomorrow is increased dramatically and then the next day is increased dramatically, that’s no time to pull back. That’s when you have to hunker down, nail down, mitigate, mitigate, mitigate, get the people taken care of.”
Q: At what point will we have a better idea of a timeline for the US?
We have a lot more information now than just a few weeks ago, said Fauci — but there’s still one thing that makes it difficult to tell where the pandemic will go and how long it will last in the US.
This is the relative percentage of asymptomatic infection — and it “influences everything,” Fauci said. It influences transmission, contact tracing, and the measures that the authorities need to take. That’s why the most important thing to do now is to conduct widespread testing and collect more data.
The contact tracing and testing we’re doing isn’t enough at the moment, he warned. “It needs to be ratcheted up … we’ve got to do it better than we are now.”
[ Thank god for a voice of reason and experience in Dr. Fauci. ]