Wow! That must have really got him mad!!! I Love it!
I have always been an Apple kind of guy but I have to admit there is nothing wrong with Gates' brain.
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates answered questions about COVID-19 during a “TED Connects” program.
- Gates said the United States missed its chance to avoid stay-at-home orders because it didn’t act fast enough on the pandemic.
- He added that the U.S. needs to ramp up its testing abilities.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Tuesday that the United States missed its chance to avoid mandated shutdowns because it didn’t act fast enough on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“The U.S. is past this opportunity to control (COVID-19) without shutdown,” Gates said during a TED Connects program broadcast online. “We did not act fast enough to have an ability to avoid the shutdown.”
“It’s January when everybody should’ve been on notice,” Gates added. The virus was first discovered in December in China.
Government officials across the country have advised or directed residents in the past days to stay home in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus that’s infected at least 46,500 people in the U.S. Many locations, including California, New York City and Washington, D.C., have ordered all nonessential businesses to temporarily close. As a result, unemployment claims are surging and markets are hitting multiyear lows.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wants businesses to open by Easter, April 12, to soften the economic impact. Government officials and health experts have widely criticized these calls, warning that bringing people back to work will overwhelm the health-care system and lead to more deaths.
Gates acknowledged Tuesday that self isolation will be “disastrous” for the economy, but “there really is no middle ground.” He suggested a shutdown of six to 10 weeks.
“It’s very tough to say to people, ‘Hey keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner, we want you to keep spending because there’s some politician that thinks GDP growth is what counts,’” Gates said. “It’s hard to tell people during an epidemic … that they should go about things knowing their activity is spreading this disease.”
Gates added Tuesday that the United States needs to ramp up its COVID-19 testing abilities and better navigate who actually needs to be tested.
“In terms of testing, we’re still not creating that capacity and applying it to people in need,” Gates said. “The testing thing has got to be organized, has got to be prioritized. That is super, super urgent.”
Gates has long focused on the health field within his work at the nonprofit Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Last week, Gates hosted an Ask Me Anything session on the discussion forum Reddit to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic with users.
Additionally, Gates warned in his 2015 TED Talk that the world needs to prepare more for a pandemic.
“We’ve actually invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic. We’re not ready for the next epidemic,” Gates said at the time. When referencing his TED Talk on Tuesday, Gates said that “sadly very little was done,” but he remains optimistic.
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Line after line of crooked GOP bullshit- even ways Trump can take advantage of it.
AND THIS:
“The bill also contains a six-month extension of federal funding through the end of November for abstinence-only education programs favored by social conservatives who are a critical Republican voting bloc.”
THREAD from @EricLyptonNYT—->
$2 trillion Senate bill includes an enormous number of important provisions that will help US get through historic crisis. But it also has some narrowly tailored provisions pushed by lobbyists in DC. LET's TAKE A LOOK. First the story w @kenvogel
First up: Community Banks. Much of last year, industry pushed the FDIC to allow them to have 8 percent capital reserves. They lost. FDIC said it had to be 9 percent. Coronavirus was an opening. They pushed Congress to overrule FDIC, at least temporarily. That is in the bill
Next: Hotels. Normally, more than 500 employees isn't considered a small business. But hotel owners with multiple properties wanted to be eligible for Small Business loans/grants to pay wages in the Coronavirus package. Lobbyists intervened. Now its 500 employees PER HOTEL
Guess who has a small chain of hotels that are run by a company that overall has more than 500 employees, but whose individual properties might now be eligible for this provision: Trump Org. Unclear if they will use this. We asked.
NEXT: They call it the "Retail Glitch" what retailers say was a mistake in 2017 tax bill that prevented stores, restaurants and HOTELS from getting a fast tax break on renovations. Industry pushed for more than a year to fix it. Coronavirus gave them an opening. It is in the bill
FOR PROFIT COLLEGES: Would be able to retain more of the money they collect via federal loans to their students, even if students drop out, in a provision that is in the bill. Works for all colleges. But for profit may benefit most.
Again, this bill does incredibly important things for a lot of sectors of the US. Just pointing out there are various provisions that benefit individual sectors--provisions inserted after lobbyists intervened. That is how Washington works. Even in a global health crisis.
It is our job to find this stuff. So we did.
