--- title: "Bill Gates Is Pissed: “We Should’ve Done More” to Stop COVID-19" description: "Microsoft co-founder and public health advocate Bill Gates has a gloomy message about the COVID-19 pandemic: We missed our chance to mitigate harm." date: "2020-03-25" modified: "2020-03-25" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/bill-gates-laments-covid-19-coronavirus" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "Bill Gates" - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "health" --- # Bill Gates Is Pissed: “We Should’ve Done More” to Stop COVID-19 ![Microsoft co-founder and public health advocate Bill Gates has a gloomy message about the COVID-19 pandemic: We missed our chance to mitigate harm.]() *\Image: Mueller /MSC\* Microsoft co-founder and public health advocate Bill Gates has a gloomy message about the coronavirus pandemic: We missed our chance to mitigate massive harm months ago. "There’s the period between where we realized it was transmitting and now where we should’ve done more," he [said during an interview]() with Chris Anderson, the curator of the famed TED Talks series. He also opined that "everybody should have taken notice back in January." Here's the full interview: Gates — a multi-billionaire best known as the leader and figurehead of software giant Microsoft during its heyday, as well as regularly topping the list of the world's richest people — has embraced philanthropy and become a fiery advocate for global health in his second act. And in retrospect, some of the magnate's warnings look strikingly prescient. For example, [here's Bill Gates in 2015](): *"If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes."* In his interview with Anderson this week, Gates seems to take aim at U.S. President Donald Trump, who has [started suggesting]() that society ease off the "shelter-in-place" guidelines that are keeping new infections at bay but hammering the economy. "It’s very tough to say to people, ‘Hey keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner, we want you to keep spending because there’s some politician that thinks GDP growth is what counts,’" Gates said in the interview. "It’s hard to tell people during an epidemic… that they should go about things knowing their activity is spreading this disease." ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()