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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: grey_whiskers

some probably are. some may be able to filter them out. do you know about gates? I certainly don’t.


81 posted on 02/28/2020 8:02:54 PM PST by ArfDog123ABC
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To: NRx

“I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise,” - Bill Gates

That’s actually good advice.

Though people will hate him for saying it.


82 posted on 02/28/2020 8:18:51 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: moovova

“Stay in your lane, Bill.”

He’s done more for public health that the CDC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation


83 posted on 02/28/2020 8:22:06 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Mariner

I agree. It’s become fairly popular on here to ridicule those raising the alarm. But the truth is we don’t know how bad this is going to be. I hope it turns out to be a wet squib instead of a bomb. But it would be irresponsible not to prepare for a worst case scenario. And the possibility that this could be bad is very real.


84 posted on 02/28/2020 8:24:58 PM PST by NRx (A man of honor passes his father's civilization to his son without surrendering it to strangers.)
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Does IDIOT Bill Gates know we have 2 Companies with Cures???!!!!
85 posted on 02/28/2020 11:17:51 PM PST by KavMan
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To: NRx

“...the coronavirus that has killed at least 2,859 people and infected more than 83,700 globally...”

Heads up...regular Flu (despite ample vaccines and knowledge about it), infects over 30 MILLION AMERICANS every year (between 8% and 11% on average).

I wonder if Gates wanted to “give President Trump and out” by saying we expect a once-a-century outbreak of some disease...or if he wanted to sound astute w/o realizing what he was saying...


86 posted on 02/29/2020 3:40:49 AM PST by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches, or Trump in general, while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: ArfDog123ABC

Quite old? Is 64 considered quite old? Yikes.


87 posted on 02/29/2020 4:39:08 AM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: Mariner

I stand corrected.


88 posted on 02/29/2020 4:43:44 AM PST by moovova
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To: NRx

Cholera or typhus in the California tent squatter communities will kill people on a scale that will make the corona virus pseudo crisis trivial


89 posted on 02/29/2020 4:50:33 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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To: bigdaddy45

I did not realize he was that young still!

Ok, I modify my previous statement, he could learn pretty much anything he wanted easily still, and if he chooses, has the time and ability to do so.


90 posted on 02/29/2020 7:13:53 AM PST by ArfDog123ABC
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