Bill Gates says there’s one key to safely reopening the U.S. economy: Testing.
The Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.82% co-founder, whose namesake foundation has long funded the global fight against infectious diseases, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday that the U.S. needs to be smart about reopening as the coronavirus pandemic wanes, and that to make it work, the country needs to sharply ramp up its testing capacity.
Gates warned that areas that have not had major outbreaks yet are still at risk, and a second wave of outbreaks remains possible if states reopen too soon and travel resumes.
“ “If they open up, they can go back into exponential [coronavirus infection] growth and compete with New York on that basis.” ”
Gates stressed the need to reopen in stages, with the most essential businesses reopening first, along with strict safety measures, massive testing and contact tracing in place to nip any new outbreak in the bud before it spreads.
“What we don’t know is, if we go slightly back to normal, which activities create the risk of a rebound?” Gates told CNN. “We need to put in place a very dense testing regime so you would detect that rebound going back into exponential growth very quickly and not wait for the ICUs to fill up and there to be a lot of deaths. If you see the hot spot, you kind of understand the activities causing that.”
He said the U.S. testing capability was nearing 500,000 per day, but that’s “just barely enough for really doing the tracking.”
Gates also warned that a vaccine could be as long as two years away.
Meanwhile, while some states have already partially reopened, or are drawing up guidelines for how to resume business, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator, said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that she’s concerned some states are reopening too quickly, and warned that “social distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure that we protect one another as we move through these phases.”
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