The second richest man in the world, Bill Gates, has revealed what governments across the world must do if life is to go back to normal, as countries relax lockdown restrictions enforced due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Gates who is now a leading voice on how to fight Coronavirus and has granted numerous interviews on how to fight it since it started, has recommended four things for life to “get back to normal”
The Microsoft founder released the list ahead of his Thursday night’s CNN Town Hall interview with White House Infectious disease expert Dr Fauci .
The list reads;
1..Testing: Gates suggests various strategies to advance current testing methods including at-home test kits and consistent standards about who can get tested.
2.Contact Tracing: Gates suggests following Germany’s model. Interview everyone who tests positive and use a database to make sure someone follows up with all their contacts. However, this relies on the infected person reporting their contacts accurately and requires a lot of staff to follow up with everyone in person. Gates suggest technology may be more adept at this, such as apps that help you remember where you’ve been or using cell phones.
3. Effective Treatment: Right now, there is no treatment for Covid-19. On Wednesday, Fauci expressed optimism about an experimental drug called remdesevir, which is still in the trial phase. Other drugs like hydroxychloroquine have received a lot of attention but are still being studied. Treatments such as convalescent plasma – drawing blood from patients who have recovered from Covid-19, making sure it is free of the coronavirus and other infections, and giving the plasma and the antibodies it contains to sick people – look promising. But there is no magic drug experts can fully support yet.
4.A Vaccine: Many countries and companies around the world are working at break-neck speed to develop a vaccine faster — and there are promising signs. Gates is particularly excited about pursuing a new approach called an “RNA vaccine.”
He said: “Unlike a flu shot, which contains fragments of the influenza virus so your immune system can learn to attack them, an RNA vaccine gives your body the genetic code needed to produce viral fragments on its own,” So, once your body senses traces of the infection, it attacks it.
As at Thursday, the COVID-19 death toll in the US stands at over 63,000.
