COVID-19 Warning

I watched a TEDtalk by Bill Gates called “The next outbreak? We’re not ready”. It was recorded 5 years ago but watching it connected to so much of what is occurring today. It’s scary to see how 5 years later, what Bill Gates was talking about is now reality, almost like he made his speech during the current pandemic. He talked a lot about what ended up being current problems we are facing like: lack of doctors, lack of appropriate response to the increase of cases, failing health systems and properness for an epidemic. I know he was not the only one with these concerns so it amazes me how unprepared we really were for this pandemic.

Bill Gates is a well known leader as he is an investor, philanthropist and software developer (Microsoft, of course). He is however, not the first person I would think of doing a talk about global health. It’s interesting to see how passionate he is about global health. The Bill Gates Foundation has a Global Health Division meant specifically for issues like we are facing today. 5 years ago, someone not in the healthcare field warned about an epidemic that was bound to happen and he knew we were not prepared for it. We saw the effects of Ebola and how the world was not prepared to face something so serious. This disease was not air-borne and caused about 10,000 deaths in 2015.

It’s interesting to see how much has been affected by coronavirus. The economy, job market, healthcare field and access to- everything in society has been affected. It’s kind of amazing to see how other leaders should have been concerned about this as some were. The world was not prepared for something major like this to happen.

Here is the talk for anyone that is interested:

https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready