Thread by @teddyschleifer

"It's January when everybody should've been on notice," says Bill Gates in an interview with TED.

"There's the period before this shows up when we should’ve done more. There's the period between where we realized it was transmitting and now where we should’ve done more."

Bill Gates on social isolation measures:

"It's disastrous for the economy. But the sooner you do it in a tough way, the sooner you can undo it and go back to normal."

New reaction from Bill Gates on the idea of reopening the economy, as Trump has proposed:

"It's very irresponsible for somebody to suggest that we can have the best of both worlds."

"There is no middle course on this thing."

Bill Gates on these proposals:

"And it's very tough to say to people, 'Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over int he corner, we want you to keep spending.'

Because there's maybe a politician who thinks GDP growth is all that counts."

Bill Gates:

"It really is tragic that the economic effects of this is really dramatic. Nothing like this has ever happened to the economy in our lifetimes"

But "that's more of a reversible thing than bringing people back to life."

Our story —

Bill Gates says we can’t restart the economy soon and simply “ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner”

vox.com/recode/2020/3/…

Full quote from Bill Gates on why we can't "ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner" and reopen the economy.

vox.com/recode/2020/3/…