One of Microsoft‘s founders, Bill Gates, said in a video chat with Chris Anderson of TED, a non-profit organization that organizes discussions and online communities, yesterday that the United States acted very slowly and at the same time missed its chance to avoid the shutdown to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

Gates said, “The United States missed the opportunity to control (COVID-19) without going through a closure. We have not acted quickly enough to avoid a closure.”

In recent days, government officials around the country have advised or ordered residents to stay in their homes to slow the spread of the coronavirus that has infected at least 55,330 people in the United States. Many places, including California, New York and Washington, DC, have ordered all unnecessary companies to temporarily close. In general, companies such as grocery stores and pharmacies were excluded.

But Gates believed that this was the measure that should have been taken in January and said: “In January everyone should have been warned, noting that the virus was first detected in December in China.

Gates added: “In the period between our awareness of how the virus was transmitted and now, we had to do more. It is very difficult to tell people :hello, go to the restaurant and go to buy new homes and ignore the corpse in the world, we want you to continue to spend because there is a politician that believes GDP growth is what matters. ”

Source : Bill Gates