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Bill Gates: Coronavirus may be ‘once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about’
CNBC ^ | 02-28-2020 | Noah Higgins-Dunn

Posted on 02/28/2020 3:01:53 PM PST by NRx

Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the coronavirus that has killed at least 2,859 people and infected more than 83,700 globally may be the “once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about.”

“I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise,” Gates wrote in an article published Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Gates and his wife, Melinda, founded The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to help improve world health and combat extreme poverty. The foundation announced Feb. 5 that it would donate $100 million to help find treatments and expand testing for the virus, particularly for poorer populations.

According to Gates, COVID-19 poses a serious threat to the world because it’s far more deadly and contagious than many other deadly viruses.

“First, it can kill healthy adults in addition to elderly people with existing health problems,” he wrote. “Second, Covid-19 is transmitted quite efficiently. The average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others — an exponential rate of increase.” World health leaders say the disease is spread by people who are mildly ill or don’t show any symptoms at all, making it harder to contain and more contagious than other types of viruses.

The mortality rate is “many times more severe than typical seasonal influenza,” Gates said. The World Health Organization said the mortality rate of COVID-19 can differ, ranging from 0.7% to up to 4%, depending on the quality of the health-care system where it’s treated. Gates said that its current average estimated fatality rate of around 1% places it somewhere between the 1957 Asian flu pandemic (0.6%) that killed 1.1 million people and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (2%) that killed 50 million around the world, according to data from the CDC.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: alarmism; coronavirus; covid19; gatesfoundation; sarscov2
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To: Dacula

Yeah, Ty Cobb (Detroit guy here)

I coached against some GREAT baseball teams from Cobb county Georgia in the 14 years i coached youth baseball in Waterford/Pontiac area of Michigan.

Never been there. I should go some day.


41 posted on 02/28/2020 3:43:19 PM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: PGalt

I still need to do a road trip to go see those darn things. It’s been more than 15 years since I first read about them.


42 posted on 02/28/2020 3:43:49 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: NRx

Wanna bet these tech billionaires are shorting their portfolios?


43 posted on 02/28/2020 3:45:50 PM PST by P-Marlowe (Freep mail me if you want to be on my Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar Ping List)
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To: NRx

When I want understand health issues, I always get advice from billionaires, Lawyers and Media Reporters.
NOT


44 posted on 02/28/2020 3:47:59 PM PST by Zathras
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To: moovova

I’m worried more about your Windows operating system getting a deadly virus.

.....
Exactly. If humans were like Windows, we all would be dead weeks ago.


45 posted on 02/28/2020 3:48:46 PM PST by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. ( https://youtu.be/V12H2mteniE))
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To: Dacula

Good choice...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPUNsN-0Lz4

(Yeah, I know such talent though R.I.P. GM)


46 posted on 02/28/2020 3:49:24 PM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: MeganC

“Ping me back in two weeks and you’ll see the US mortality numbers on par with Italy and China.”

Two weeks ago I was told that this was going to be the case now.

“Fingers crosses”, amirite?


47 posted on 02/28/2020 3:53:19 PM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: mewzilla
The Italian newspapers have info putting the mortality rate between 2 and 3 percent as of this afternoon.

True, if you are counting every sick Italian as a survivor.

Italy has 21 deaths and 888 sick 2.4% IF you believe everyone who is merely sick recovers.

Italy has 21 dead and 46 recovered. That's 67 who have run the full course of the disease. 21 of those did it by dying. 21/67 times 100 is 31%!

Not to panic, when more data comes in that percentage has always dropped. So far.

48 posted on 02/28/2020 3:53:21 PM PST by null and void (By the pricking of my lungs, Something wicked this way comes ...)
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To: dp0622

Yup. And really so tiresome.

As a class of 98’er, I can tell you we’ve been down this hyped-road several times in the past.

Anthrax, SARS, MERS, Ebola—we’re all gonna die!!!

Worse still, it is often (not saying here) the SAME FReepers now who freaked out or spread doom and gloom years ago for EACH of these so called end of the world events.


49 posted on 02/28/2020 3:53:37 PM PST by Alas Babylon! (The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
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To: gibsonguy

ABC news. ..giddy that the markets tanked. They also seem pleased that “new virus cases “ have come out since Trumps speech. I just want to pummel these assWipes.


50 posted on 02/28/2020 3:55:24 PM PST by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. ( https://youtu.be/V12H2mteniE))
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To: NRx

If anyone knows nothing about spreading viruses, it’s Bill Gates of MS Windows fame.


51 posted on 02/28/2020 3:55:27 PM PST by Squeako (You can lead a progressive to water, but can you make him drown?)
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To: MeganC
3.41% mortality rate among those who have been confirmed to have the disease.

We will NEVER know the real mortality rate! Countless people "get a bug" and just recover at home without seeing a doctor (much less being tested for COVID-19!)... However..., obviously the SKY IS FALLING and it is doomsday???

52 posted on 02/28/2020 4:19:15 PM PST by ExSES (the "bottomhttps://youtu.be/ycrqXJYf1SU-line")
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To: NRx

And Windows 10 may be the OS we’ve been waiting for!


53 posted on 02/28/2020 4:20:10 PM PST by Fai Mao (this should not be considered an invitation, or desire to see this ocurr)
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To: bigdaddy45

People like Gates and Buffet and Bezos have access to the best advisors in the world. That’s why they can speak authoritatively.


54 posted on 02/28/2020 4:25:31 PM PST by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: MeganC

That’s higher than the 1918 flu.

It won’t be the end of the world but its nothing to sluff off either. Like so many on FR do.


55 posted on 02/28/2020 4:34:12 PM PST by crusher2013
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To: NRx
OTOH, it could just be another kind of flue.

Coronavirus Infections

Coronaviruses are a group of common viruses. They are named for the crown-like spikes on the surface of the virus. Some coronaviruses only affect animals, but others can also affect humans. Most people get infected with human coronaviruses at some time in their life. They usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory infections, like the common cold. But they can also cause more severe illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

There are several different types of human coronaviruses, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses.

Pretty much everyone reading this has been infected with a Corona virus at least once in their life.
56 posted on 02/28/2020 4:34:48 PM PST by jdege
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To: DesertRhino

Y2k, the new ice age, the population bomb and mass starvation, peak oil, the ozone hole over the arctic and CFCs, Global warming that changed into climate change, the polar bears, depleted fish stocks, the Pacific clogged with plastic,
—————————————————————————————————-

SARS, Ebola, swine flu, bird flu, mad cow disease, sterile farm ground, water polluted from pesticides, frogs dying off, bees dying off no pollination,


57 posted on 02/28/2020 4:36:42 PM PST by Romans Nine
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To: NRx

you see people......you’ve got the mega billionaires in on this.....and this guy reportedly doesn’t even vaccinate his own kids....


58 posted on 02/28/2020 4:40:25 PM PST by cherry
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To: crusher2013

It won’t be the end of the world but its nothing to sluff off either. Like so many on FR do
—————————————————————————————————

Well I guess I should stop licking public bathroom door handles until this passes?


59 posted on 02/28/2020 4:45:22 PM PST by Romans Nine
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To: NRx
boywhocriedwolf
60 posted on 02/28/2020 4:47:21 PM PST by timestax
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