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The next outbreak? We’re not ready | Bill Gates | TED

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  • Recommended by 2 people, in Hacker News, across 2 different months.
  • Presented by Bill Gates, as the video describes them
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 11 years ago, in an area where guidance changes.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

38M views11 years ago2 recommendations

Immunity and infectionEvidence and public healthInfectious diseasePublic health and policy

Bill Gates warns about the global lack of preparedness for a major epidemic and outlines steps needed to prevent future outbreaks.

In 2014, the world avoided a horrific global outbreak of Ebola, thanks to thousands of selfless health workers -- plus, frankly, thanks to some very good luck. In hindsight, we know what we should have done better. So, now's the time, Bill Gates suggests, to put all our good ideas into practice, from scenario planning to vaccine research to health worker training. As he says, "There's no need to panic ... but we need to get going." Visit TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Become a TED Member: ted.com/membership Follow TED on Twitter: twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-…. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at media-requests.ted.com

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as a prescient warning about global pandemic unpreparedness, frequently cited during the COVID-19 pandemic.

digaozaoin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Climate change: The rich are to blame”

We are not prepared, but there was people warning about it. See this Ted talk from Bill Gates, 5 years ago. It's impressive how the details are similar to coronavirus. link to this video

dgritskoin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Bill Gates calls for nationwide shutdown”

Gates gave a prescient TED talk in 2015 1 in which he describes the risk of a global pandemic and the general lack of preparedness. The Gates foundation has also been working for years to help eradicate diseases like polio and malaria 23. Given his expertise in this area, it would seem worthwhile to listen to what he has to say rather than dismissing him as just a "billionaire industrialist." 1: link to this video 2: link 3: link

Reedxin Hacker News • Mentions

On “I’m Bill Gates. AMA about Covid-19”

It's not really about wealth, though. No one is asking or cares what the Walton heirs would have to say. It's the fact that Bill is smarter than the people in charge of our institutions. And he has a lot of experience in this domain. And has been warning about exactly this problem for many years. Indeed he warned that pandemics were our biggest blindspot and threat. E.g., See his TED talk from 2015: link to this video

Reedxin Hacker News • Mentions

On “How H-E-B planned for the pandemic”

The failure goes well beyond just the federal government too. One example being NYC leaders and even health officials encouraging New Yorkers go participate in parades and other large gatherings through Feb and even into March, with messages of defiance against Coronavirus concerns: link Edit: Removed ventilator comment as that specific claim seems to be misleading, and it's not something particular to NY. Many governments weren't prepared for a surge. The U.S. as a whole had plenty of advanced warning about ventilator1 and pandemic preparedness2. 1. link 2. link to this video

manicdeein Hacker News • Mentions

On “California once had mobile hospitals, ventilator stockpile but dismantled them”

…dia to USA flights by 20%,” horrified gasps (the audience knows where this story is going) Pandemic might have seemed improbable to you as a layperson, but the medical community has been bracing for this for decades. The less seriously you take it, the less seriously your politicians take it and the less seriously pandemic preparation gets funded. link to this video…

Cantbekhanin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Bill Gates calls for nationwide shutdown”

He totally saw this coming from a mile away and actively tried to warn the world about it. Years ago. link to this video

dredmorbiusin Hacker News • Mentions

On “One-third of New York’s small businesses may be gone forever”

"Global Catastrophic Risk Survey", 2008 pdf link Includes discussion of a "biggest natural pandemic". Posted to HN, if not discussed, on Oct 2, 2016. link The question of GCR has been raised numerous other times on HN, though admittedly more recently of late: link Infectious disease features prominantly among discussions of GCR: link Even software executives have suggested concern, this example from 5 years ago: link to this video As has the US military, from 2017: link Economic impacts of pandemic have seen significant scholarly treatment, here looking at 1990-2018: link Less black swan than head-buried ostrich, it might appear.

nindalfin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Just Be Rich”

Yeah Bill Gates - terrible guy. Spending money trying to eradicate diseases that kill poor people. What's worse, here's him in 2015 ( link to this video ) wasting money and faffing on about some pandemic. As if that's going to happen, and even if it does the pandemic won't affect rich countries in any way.