CORONAVIRUS AND THE FACE OF REVOLUTION, CIVIL WAR AND UNREST

Bill Gates Calls for Complete National Shutdown

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LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty

LUCAS NOLAN

 1 Apr 20202,308

2:15

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has called for a nationwide shutdown in an effort to combat the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

The Hill reports that Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist has called on a nationwide lockdown of the United States in an op-ed in the Washington Post. Gates states that he has spoken with experts through his charity who have stated that national policy would be more effective than multiple states issuing stay-at-home others while others remain open. Gates argues that the country needs a “consistent nationwide approach to shutting down.”

Gates writes in the op-ed: “Despite urging from public health experts, some states and counties haven’t shut down completely. In some states, beaches are still open; in others, restaurants still serve sit-down meals.”

“This is a recipe for disaster. Because people can travel freely across state lines, so can the virus. The country’s leaders need to be clear: Shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere,” he added. “Until the case numbers start to go down across America — which could take 10 weeks or more — no one can continue business as usual or relax the shutdown.”

Gates also stated that while a vaccine for the virus could be available within 18 months, “creating a vaccine is only half the battle.” Gates wrote: “We can start now by building the facilities where these vaccines will be made. Because many of the top candidates are made using unique equipment, we’ll have to build facilities for each of them, knowing that some won’t get used.”

He added: “Private companies can’t take that kind of risk, but the federal government can. It’s a great sign that the administration made deals this week with at least two companies to prepare for vaccine manufacturing. I hope more deals will follow.”

States including New York, New Jersey, and Washington have all issued stay-at-home orders while other states have issued less restrictive guidelines.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com

United Nations chief warns coronavirus could drive 'instability' and 'unrest'

by Joel Gehrke

 | April 01, 2020 10:39 AM

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World leaders need to coordinate to address economic and public health challenges that the coronavirus pandemic is causing on a scale unseen since the Second World War, according to the top United Nations official.

"The combination of the two facts and the risk that it contributes to enhanced instability, enhanced unrest, and enhanced conflict are things that make us believe that this is the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters.

That warning comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases is surging around the world, including the United States, where U.S. officials are bracing for as many as 200,000 deaths from the disease. The pandemic has driven Western leaders to urge their populations to remain at home while governments ramp up their ability to counter the new coronavirus, paralyzing global commerce in a way rarely seen outside of wartime.

“The size of the coronavirus shock to fiscal policy will be comparable only to the Second World War and the global financial crisis,” Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, warned Tuesday. “Many of the European countries that are among the worst affected by the epidemic, such as Italy and Spain, already had weak fiscal positions before the coronavirus outbreak ... A debt crisis in any of these countries would quickly spread to other developed countries and emerging markets, sending the global economy into another, possibly much deeper, economic crisis.”

Guterres, who launched an international trust fund on Tuesday for wealthy countries to aid the poorer, worries that impoverished nations will struggle to stop the virus or manage the economic devastation it causes. “It is essential that developed countries immediately assist those less developed to bolster their health systems and their response capacity to stop transmission,” he said Tuesday. “Otherwise, we face the nightmare of the disease spreading like wildfire in the global South with millions of deaths and the prospect of the disease reemerging where it was previously suppressed.”