Bill Gates says he’s optimistic about the world’s chances of seeing through the wilder theories from anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists and of beating the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Dina Bass and Candy Cheng for Bloomberg Businessweek:
How confident are you we’ll have a working vaccine that can be widely distributed by the end of 2020?
Bill Gates: Well, the initial vaccine won’t be ideal in terms of its effectiveness against sickness and transmission. It may not have a long duration, and it will mainly be used in rich countries as a stopgap measure.
We’d be lucky to have much before the end of the year. But then, in 2021, a number of other vaccines are very likely to get approved. The strongest response will probably come from the protein subunit. With so many companies working on it, we can afford quite a few failures and still have something with low cost and long duration.
Given the [anti-vaxxer’s] skepticism, should a COVID-19 vaccine be mandatory?
Gates: Making something mandatory can often backfire. But you might say that if you’re going to work in an old-folks home or have any exposure to elderly people, it would be required.
What about the conversation around hydroxychloroquine?
Gates: In the test tube, hydroxychloroquine looked good. On the other hand, there are lots of good therapeutic drugs coming that are proven to work without the severe side effects.
How do you think this all ends?
Gates: The innovations in therapeutics will start to cut the death rate, but the true end will come from the spread of natural infections and the vaccine giving us herd immunity. For rich countries, that will be sometime next year, ideally in the first half. We’ll get out of this by the end of 2021.
So we’re going to be OK?
Gates: Certainly. We’re lucky this one wasn’t a more fatal disease.
MacDailyNews Take: Bill Gates, the man who missed the Internet and who, without a feckless IBM and Steve Jobs from whom to copy poorly, would be just another nebbish spaghetti coder. So, as always, take his prognostications with a grain of salt.
That said, hopefully the vaccine will come more quickly than many thought possible earlier this year as the U.S.’s Operation Warp Speed accelerates development by funding steps to proceed simultaneously versus the usual sequential process.
Until then, try to be as safe as you can be – wash your hands frequently, keep your hands away from your face, wear a mask in public, practice social distancing, etc.
As of May 30, 2020, among COVID-19 cases, the most common underlying health conditions were cardiovascular disease (32%), diabetes (30%), and chronic lung disease (18%). Hospitalizations were six times higher and deaths 12 times higher among those with reported underlying conditions compared with those with none reported.
The CDC guidelines for how to protect yourself and others — especially older adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes and are at higher risk for developing serious complications from COVID-19 — are here.
It’s funny, if Trump stated this phase, the media is going to tear him apart into million pieces. He will be a dead man walking. Defund the media!.
Why do people mainly die from COVID-19?
Generally because they are fat fucks. Didn’t take care of themselves for all or most of their life. Gluttons. Gave themselves diabetes and asthma.
This is why the U.S. has so many COVID-19 deaths, relatively. The U.S. is the Land of the Fat.
Of course, the typical Democrat Liberal SJW bullshitters came up with the whole “fat shaming” line of crap granting “permission” to fat fucks to stuff their fat fucking faces even more.
Well, now you have permission to die.
Survival of the fittest, indeed.
“Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” – Philippians 3:19
“Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.” – Proverbs 23:20-21
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” – 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Oh how Pious…so you don’t think the explosion of High Fructose Corn Syrup, other manmade sugars and gov’t subsidized processed food have anything to obesity rates – its just that people are gluttonous and not a brilliant, hard working, mental giant like you? Grow the hell up and THINK. Humans are NOT designed to be obese most of this is a result of what we’ve done to our food and genetics. I weight over 320lbs for years and hated myself because I believed BS like what you’re spilling. Once I started learning for myself what causes obesity and STOPPED hating myself I lost 90lbs and am stronger now than I was in my 30s and 40s. People aren’t lazy, they aren’t intentionally gluttonous they’re just people like we’ve always had on this planet. Get off man made sugar, eat real food and most of this goes away. You are no better than the poor bastards you disparage, you just don’t react to our shit food like they (and I) do. Be thankful and bit less of an a**hole.
Most deaths from CoViD-19 happen in nursing homes and assisted-care living facilities. Basically the old and infirm are most vulnerable to dying from CoViD-19 according to current statistics. I had seen as high as 40% mortality rate on different sites.
I see plenty of overweight people still walking around and filling up the fast-food places as soon as they were able to open them for business. People can be overweight and be resistant to Coronavirus. My neighborhood is somewhat proof of that. They just loves dat fried chicken and pork chops wif extra gravy.
Check Pennsylvania for high nursing home deaths. Figures are consistently 68%-70% and fluctuate slightly daily. You probably won’t find reported in national media because of a Democrat governor in an important swing state…
Tell Trump to ban McDonalds rather than TikTok. He’s got no sense of priorities. He’s a fat fuck himself.
Hey Brutal……Love your take….you need to post more often!!
Bill Gates is a smart guy. As Steve Jobs said, he has no taste but he is a smart guy. I trust Bill Gates’ judgement in pandemic medicine and the other areas of public health he’s active in.
Such a shame- you really don’t know what you don’t know…. why in the hell would you trust Bill Gates judgement in anything, PARTICULARLY in Pandemic medicine. What you meant to say is that you trust your socialist/elite overlord’s opinion on.. well… just about anything.
How the hell did he miss the Internet? Because Netscape came first? Who cares. The dude was not a designer (which SJ was) but his company is still around, and crazy powerful. Calm down.
https://1995blog.com/2015/05/24/the-internet-tidal-wave-20-years-on/
Well Bill knows his viruses.
I’m wondering if the virus will continue to mutate and become more dangerous as time goes on. Where I live in NYC, none of the teenagers are wearing masks and they’re at the parks playing plenty of semi-contact sports. People are holding rave-parties with no precautions, whatsoever. It’s as though there is no pandemic among certain groups of people. I’ve got plenty of N-95 masks and I still wear them and the closest I get to people is standing in line in the supermarket. I can’t really avoid that.
Anyway, most teenagers seem pretty much immune to CoViD-19 and I consider them very fortunate. I’m in my 70’s, so I’m playing it safe and I’ve been lucky, so far. I gotta try to keep out of Grim Reaper’s line of sight while the teenagers are laughing and daring him to take them.
Welcome to America- where you can (for now, and in reduced capacity) still have the personal decision to assess the facts and take personal action as you see fit… This, of course, will be completely stripped away if Biden (make that Harris) gets elected as President of the United States… please vote accordingly…
First, coronaviruses are known to mutate, a lot. In fact Iceland has already isolated over 200 variants of the CV.
Second, the good news is most viruses tend to become LESS potent as they mutate. So for a virus that already is mostly harmful to those in high risk categories, with a risk of 0.4% in your age category (that accounts for the high risk individuals too), the risk is very small.
Third, over 55% of the deaths in NYC were in long term care facilities, meaning they already had compromised health. And this in no small part because known elderly COVID patients were forced to be moved to homes to clear out the hospitals.
Fourth, more news is coming out that this number might be a LOT higher because many of the cases that died in hospital ORIGINATED from those homes but were NOT counted among their totals because they were transferred before and did not die in the home.
In Canada, over 80% of all deaths were in long term care facilities, and even that, that vast majority were isolated to only a very few because of poor procedures.
So again, too much fear created out of a lack of and poorly investigated and poorly presented information.
MDN needs to stop watching so much Fox News, they are giving way too much credit to Trump.
As far as their blind bias towards Bill Gates, they should take the advice Steve Jobs Jobs gave back in 1996 and get over it!
“hopefully the vaccine will come more quickly than many thought possible earlier this year as the U.S.’s Operation Warp Speed accelerates development by funding steps to proceed simultaneously versus the usual sequential process.
Until then, try to be as safe as you can be – wash your hands frequently, keep your hands away from your face, wear a mask in public, practice social distancing, etc.”
First, there has NEVER been a successful vaccine developed for ANY coronavirus (CV), what makes ANYONE believe they can do it this time? 17 years after SARS and more recently MERS, which are also caused by CVs have never been successful (and money is only a part of the reason). Another reason is because CVs mutate fast. Some CVs are the cause of colds too. Ever hear of a vaccine for the common cold? There are good reasons for that.
Second, the fastest time to develop a vaccine was 4 years, and that was RECORD time. Most vaccines take years to come to market. One BIG reason (but not the only one) is the human trials needed to make sure that they are safe AND effective. So what makes anyone think they can do it in far less time like one year?
Third, even in successful vaccines, like the flu, they are only effective about 40% of the time.
Fourth, consider the safety of ANY vaccine. They are after all MEDICINE. BUT vaccine manufacturers have been granted legal immunity from ever being sued. Instead, there is a Vaccine Injury Court that has been set up…but not in every country. There is on is the US. But ask yourself this…why is there even one, if they are supposed to be safe? Because there is never any medicine that is 100% safe. For vaccines, you just can no longer sue the companies anymore.
Fifth, so even if a vaccine were developed in record time (after already having skipped animal testing that is usually necessary for ANY medicine), would you be the first to try it out?
Sixth, there are other considerations regarding ANY medication, including vaccines…like potential short and long-term side effects…some of which cannot be known, especially if human trials are rushed.
Seventh, consider this…why the need for a vaccine if you are not in the vulnerable categories (obese, underlying conditions…age is NOT a risk factor and a pre-determinant)? The effects of this virus are innocuous to most people. Even people over 100 have survived it with no long lasting effects. It may not have been pleasant (neither is the flu for many) but over 60% survive it. Age + CV is NOT a death sentence. Not saying don’t be cautious…just don’t be freaked out.
Not saying no one should take a vaccine…just saying don’t be feared into taking it if it becomes available. Just weigh the risk based on proper facts and understanding.
And contrary to many, masks are nowhere near as effective some lead us to believe. Ask yourself this…how much water or sand will be blocked when thrown at a chainlinked fence, even with multiple layers? That is about how much virus is blocked. Now will the spread be prevented if you constantly touch that fence and touch everything else, or if you laid it down on every surface you come across, e.g. tables, chairs, desk, etc? Masks are they same re: CV. They truly create a false sense of security.
(like usual…I expect lots of fireworks over my comments).