Bill Gates Feels Schools Will Reopen By Late 2020 With Limited Attendance

The United States has been one of the worst hit countries by the Coronavirus pandemic. As the number of cases detected nears half a million, there is a huge debate on how long the ongoing lockdown in the US should continue for.

Bill Gates in a recent interview with CNBC said that he thinks ¡°schools [in the US] will be able to resume in the fall.¡± In the same interview, however, Gates also mentioned how that does not imply a quick and healthy recovery for the US economy.

Bill Gates Coronavirus Lockdown

He shares his reasoning for the two. He predicts the opening of the schools in the US ¡°in limited numbers¡± by fall, or Autumn that usually spreads across the months of September, October and November.

The prediction builds on Gates earlier suggestion on at least a 6 to 10 weeks lockdown. Gates mentions the same in the CNBC interview. On a broader scale, he comments that the U.S. could open back up at the end of May.

Schools vs Coronavirus

Gates also mentions an important point of not all school students having access to connectivity. He says, ¡°some [schools] don¡¯t do online learning because it would be unjust in terms of the kids who don¡¯t have access. And so that¡¯s really a dilemma.¡±

He further mentions the efforts of philanthropists Ray Dalio and Jeff Bezos ¡°who are trying to fill that gap, you know, get some devices and connectivity out there.¡±

Gate¡¯s remark on the revival of the US economy may have stemmed from the fact that many economical activities cannot be restarted just as before in the post-Coronavirus-pandemic-era. The economy is bound to take a hit and ¡°won¡¯t magically return to the way it was before the coronavirus pandemic,¡± says Gates.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

The billionaire philanthropist mentions how many business activities have now been restarted in countries like China and South Korea. There is, however, a tendency for the public to not be keen on some practices as in the earlier days.

¡°The behavior of people in terms of wanting to travel or go to events or even go to a restaurant, it¡¯s been utterly changed by the concerns about this disease,¡± Gates said. ¡°No one should think the government can wave a wand and all of a sudden the economy is anything like it was before this happened. That awaits either a miracle therapeutic that has an over 95% cure rate, or broad usage of the vaccine.¡±

He further predicts that ¡°eventually, the government¡¯s going to have to take all the expert input and create a new regime for what¡¯s going on that¡¯s extremely sensitive to how well it¡¯s working through the quick-turnaround, prioritized testing.¡±

Bill Gates had warned the world of such an outbreak back in 2015. Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus Bill Gates has managed to support a project for coronavirus test kits worth Rs 37 crore, funded research on Coronavirus cure in a leading medical lab and develop a possible vaccine which is now underway for human trials.