Bill Gates Predicted Coronvirus Now He Tells What He Hopes We Learn From It

Source: K Asif/India Today Group/Getty Images / K Asif/India Today Group/Getty Images

When the coronavirus began shutting down the United States, one of the first pieces of content to go viral was a Ted Talk video of Bill Gates predicting COVID-19. The billionaire warned us that the next virus would be dangerous, because unlike Ebola, it would be transmittable before the infected person feels any illness at all–He even made it a point to use a person traveling in airports infecting others unknowingly as the main example of how fast the virus will spread.

While many viewers used this video as some sort of conspiracy theory, Bill’s prediction was far from that: it was simply based on facts and evidence we already had at our disposal. Gates’ main point was for us to focus on “when” it will happen–not “if”–so we can be prepared. Fast forward to 2020, especially considering the leadership we have in office right now, none of us were prepared for the pandemic we’re experiencing now.

While the country is slowly but surely reopening, Bill has a new question: “What have we learned?” As always, if we don’t focus on the new information presented to us, we are bound to repeat the same ole mistakes sometime in the future. Bill recently sat down with Vox–whom he also previously discussed this with in 2015–to talk about the aftermath of his unfortunate prediction.