Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Tuesday morning that the U.S. acted too slowly and missed its chance to avoid mandatory stay-at-home orders to deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, saying that “everybody should have taken notice back in January” when the first case was detected in Washington state.
“There’s the period between where we realized it was transmitting and now where we should’ve done more,” Gates said during a video discussion with Chris Anderson of TED, a non-profit organization that hosts talks and online communities.
“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.”