Bill Gates' Post-2020 Pandemic Forecast

In his June 2020 interview with Chris Anderson, head of TED Talks, Bill Gates offered his insights on best and worst case scenarios for the COVID-19 pandemic, along with his opinions on reopening and conspiracy theories.

There is no scenario any time soon where the United States sees less than 500 deaths per day due to COVID-19. The best that can possibly be done right now is to keep the death rate as low as possible.

At its peak the US was seeing 2,000 deaths per day. This could mean that by the end of 2020 the worldwide death count could be into the millions.

The US opened up too fast... That is if you only look at infection rates. When you weigh that against the need for students to be in school and the toll of people's physical and mental health care it is tough to balance. No one has the perfect answer to how to balance it all.

The single COVID-19 therapeutic remedy Gates is most excited about is monoclonal antibodies. These are man-made proteins which mimic human virus-fighting antibodies. They are currently used for cancer, cardiovascular disease and many others.

The 3 most promising and earliest to release vaccines are from Moderna (US only), AstraZeneca (based in the UK) and Johnson & Johnson. They're designing specifically for elderly COVID patients and hope to release vaccines in late 2020 or early 2021.

The Gates Foundation is working to ensure that whatever cure comes helps the entire world and is not country specific. Poorer countries will suffer higher death rates and worse effects.

Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham was one of many right wing conspiracy theorists spreading misinformation about Bill Gates "microchipping people", and that the virus is a ruse. Gates' opinion is that conspiracies like these are just simpler than virology.

Philanthropists can help the crisis in so many ways. Giving as much as you can (the average is just 1% of net worth, but he urges that now is the time to up that amount) but also helping ensure government money is being spent well and finding the areas that need help most.