On Wednesday, Bill Gates held a Reddit AMA about the coronavirus outbreak.
Gates’ foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has a long history of contributing to the fight against infectious diseases.
Gates was asked how long the lockdown measures will go for.
He responded by saying that if the lockdown measures were held correctly, they could last only 6 to 10 weeks.
Here’s our overview of the key points from Gates’ Reddit AMA.
How long will countries remain in lockdown?
Tens of millions of people have suddenly found themselves in various forms of lockdown. Some countries, such as France, Italy and Spain, have imposed strict nationwide lockdowns.
Others, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, are banning public gatherings but attempting to keep their economies running by keeping businesses running.
Whichever form of lockdown your country may be experiencing, Bill Gates shared an interesting perspective.
A Reddit user asked Gates how long the lockdowns will last for.
“This will vary a lot by country,” he wrote. “China is seeing very few cases now because their testing and ‘shut down’ was very effective. If a country does a good job with testing and ‘shut down’ then within 6-10 weeks they should see very few cases and be able to open back up.”
Will countries experience a resurgence of outbreak when they open up again?
One worry about strict lockdowns is that countries will experience a resurgence of infections once people are free to interact again.
Gates said China had not seen a resurgence of the virus. “They did their ‘shut down’ and were able to reduce the number of cases,” he wrote. “They are testing widely so they see rebounds immediately and so far there have not been a lot. They avoided widespread infection.”
On Thursday, for the first day since the beginning of the outbreak last December, China reported no new infections.
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated, is emerging from a two-month complete lockdown.
The United States doesn’t have an organized testing system in place.
On Reddit, Gates wrote that testing for the virus in the US was “not organised yet.”
“In the next few weeks I hope the Government fixes this by having a website you can go to to find out about home testing and kiosks,” he said. “Things are a bit confused on this right now.”
When will vaccines be developed for coronavirus?
Gates was asked when the first available vaccines will be developed.
He predicted that the first available coronavirus vaccines will be administered to health care workers and other critical workers.