Last Updated on May 5, 2020
In a sparsely reported interview from last month, Microsoft co-founder and self-appointed vaccine expert Bill Gates told the Financial Times that the world had no choice but to enter the worst global depression in modern history to fight the spread of coronavirus.
Gates told the interviewer that the global economy is going to shrink, causing economic devastation that could be as bad, or worse, than the Great Depression or the Panic of 1873, but that wreaking havoc on the economy was the only solution to combating the virus.
“[The economy] won’t to go to zero, but it will shrink,” said Gates. “Global GDP is going to take, you know, probably the biggest hit ever. Maybe the depression was worst, or 1873, I don’t know, but in my lifetime this will be the greatest economic hit.”
“But you don’t have a choice. People act like you have a choice, people don’t feel like going to the stadium when they might get infected. It’s not the government who’s saying, ‘Okay, just ignore this disease and you know,’ people are deeply affected by seeing these deaths, by knowing they could be part of the transmission chain,” Gates continued.
Gates cautioned that only rich countries may be able to “open up” over the next “few months,” but warned that the world will only return to something approximating normal when a significant part of the global population has been vaccinated against coronavirus.
“But, for the world at large, normalcy only returns when we’ve largely vaccinated the entire global population,” said Gates. “Trying to achieve that ambitious goal, which has never been done, for the vaccine, that rises to the top of the list.”
While most of the West did shut down through March and April in response to supposed experts like Gates, some large, developed, Western countries chose not to, and appear to be virtually no worse for their efforts.
Though President Donald Trump has derided Sweden for its decision not to enter a lockdown and crush its economy, the country’s decision to have vulnerable populations stay at home and allow the wider population to mingle in order to reach herd immunity seems to be working.
Throughout April and the first few days of May, Sweden’s healthcare system has not been crippled by an overwhelming number of cases, the reason why the United States shut down to “slow the spread,” and top science publications are now wondering if herd immunity may be the only solution for the coronavirus crisis.
According to an article in Discover Magazine:Â
As the rest of the world has hunkered down to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, Sweden has remained remarkably open. The government has taken steps like issuing guidelines for Swedes to stay home, banning gatherings of more than 50 people and closing museums. Yet restaurants, schools and parks remain open. Consequently, Sweden’s ambassador to the U.S., Karin Ulrika Olofsdotter, said the country’s capital, Stockholm, could reach herd immunity sometime this month.
Herd immunity is how a society collectively fights off infections to keep the transmission of disease low. The Swedish approach may sound appealing in countries like the U.S., where lockdown measures have crippled the economy. But remaining open has had costs, with elderly people making up 86 percent of Sweden’s more than 2,000 deaths so far. And scientists are still unsure whether individuals who have recovered from the novel coronavirus are immune to further infection — much less whether entire populations can keep the disease from reaching their most vulnerable members.
Additionally, when lockdowns were first initiated, it was believed that the virus would very frequently require hospitalization, and would be extremely fatal in those it infects. This has, according to the latest data, seemingly been proven untrue, as as many as one in five New Yorkers may have already come into contact with the virus and recovered, presenting either no symptoms or mild symptoms.
Similar data presents itself on the country’s opposite coast, where in Los Angeles, nearly 500,000 may have already encountered the virus.
Those who have already encountered the virus may have antibodies that would prevent future illness from exposure to coronavirus, creating herd immunity as the virus would have less new hosts to infect. Some have pointed out that, with most of the world locked down, there is no way for herd immunity to be reached without a vaccine, as there is no mingling of population.
National File has also pointed out that most of the country’s experts, who are unified in pushing for lockdowns and waiting patiently for experts to develop a vaccine, are financially tied to Gates.
Senior Reporter Patrick Howley reported:
Gates has a lot of pull in the medical world, he has a multi-million dollar relationship with Dr. Fauci, and Fauci originally took the Gates line supporting vaccines and casting doubt on Chloroquine. Coronavirus response team member Dr. Deborah Birx, appointed by former president Obama to serve as United States Global AIDS Coordinator, also sits on the board of a group that has received billions from Gates’ foundation, and Birx reportedly used a disputed Bill Gates-funded model for the White Houses’ Coronavirus effort.
Gates is a big proponent for a population lockdown scenario for the Coronavirus outbreak.
As the United States begins to reopen in some areas, it is worth noting that Gates and other apparent experts were claiming that we would need months of shutdown and there would be no return to normal until vaccines were widely distributed.
