Bill Gates Explains What It Will Take For Life To Go Back To Normal

While March was a terrible month for many people, April hasn’t been much better. The Coronavirus continues to ravage its way through numerous countries around the globe, particularly the United States which has the most cases of any nation. People are starting to fear how long this quarantine could go on for as many need to get back to work in order to provide for their families. Others have been struggling with mental health as the confinement has ruined their routines.

Bill Gates has been at the forefront of Coronavirus research and in a new interview with Ellen Degeneres, he divulged when Americans can expect to go back to normal. As he explains, it’s going to be a long process as a vaccine or effective treatment is the only way to get things back to where they were before. This could take months and, most likely, over a year.

“This is worse than war but the amount we put into it, the amount we practised and had the ability to make these tools, virtually nothing was done,” Gates said. “Until we get almost everybody vaccinated globally we still won’t be fully back to normal. […] We need to start getting things back to normal. They won’t be back to normal until we have that phenomenal vaccine or a therapeutic that’s over 95 per cent effective. We have to assume that’s going to be almost 18 months from now.”

While Gates’ assessment is grim, it’s one we have to take seriously if we want to make sure we save lives, as opposed to putting more at risk.

[Via]