比尔·盖茨谈美国当下疫情：年轻人成为主要感染对象！（附视频&摘要稿）

据美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）报道，当地时间7月23日，微软公司创始人比尔·盖茨透露称，美国目前的新冠肺炎感染率“令人深感不安”，并且情况也不会很快好转。

“美国的感染率令人深感不安，由于夏季气温升高，人们待在室内的时间越来越长，这应该比秋季人们外出较多的时候，更容易减少感染率。而现在的情况却是，年轻人成为主要感染对象。这意味着死亡率不断上升，但远未达到峰值。”盖茨在接受CNN采访时说，“所以情况不容乐观，正如我们四周前所预测的那样。”

盖茨还透露称，早期的新冠疫苗数据显示，要使人们避免感染病毒，只接种一针疫苗是不够的。6月份时，他曾表示赞同顶级传染病专家安东尼·福奇的预测，今年年底或者2021年初的时候可能推出一种有效的新冠疫苗。

Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes there could be some advances in testing and therapeutics in the next year.

"I think the therapeutics is actually the most promising thing and not talked about as much as the vaccines because if you have multiple therapeutics that, between them, are reducing the death rate and the amount of serious sickness by over 80%, probably over 90%, that does start to reduce the horrific burden," the philanthropist said.

"So I think by the end of the year, therapeutics will be making a big difference," he said.

Gates said by the first half of 2021, the first round of vaccines could be approved.

"Then by the end of 2021, if people are willing to take the vaccine, we'll be able to stop the transmission in the rich countries and maybe within nine months after that in the world at large," he said.

One of the real problems that could occur as schools reopen this fall for in-person learning is the spread of Covid-19 to older people, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said.

Gates' comments follow new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on education and childcare that favor the opening schools, saying children don’t suffer much from coronavirus, are less likely than adults to spread it, and suffer from being out of school.

"The real problem comes as an infection gets connected to someone that's older. So if the teacher's over 65, if that kid lives in a multigenerational household, where it's not easy to separate the kid from the older person, that's the part of this that does create real risk," Gates told CNN during its global coronavirus town hall. "Now, we have this huge benefit of having those kids in school, and so this is going to require some judgment. It's not going to be close all schools or open all schools. There are various things about having half the kids go in one week and half the other week so you can space kids out. There are things that will be tried."

Gates was heartened over the news that "there's likely to be money for schools on a bipartisan basis in this next bill, because funding some of that and spreading best practices there will mean we can reduce the education deficit."

More on the CDC guidelines: The new CDC guidelines posted Thursday do recommend that local officials should consider closing schools, or keeping them closed, if there is substantial, uncontrolled transmission of the virus.

The CDC has been promising new guidelines for more than a week, after demands from President Trump that the agency alter its recommendations for opening schools. They were posted on the agency’s website Thursday afternoon with little public notice and no explanation of what has been changed.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates called the coronavirus infection rate in the US "deeply troubling" and doesn't suspect things will get better soon.

"The infection rate in the US is deeply troubling, because the summer, when it's warmer and people are indoors more, actually, it's easier to reduce the infection than it's going to be out in the fall. And right now, those infections are largely in young people, which means the death rate, although it's come up, is nowhere near its peak," Gates said during CNN's global coronavirus town hall tonight. "So things are definitely on the bad side of what we would have predicted four weeks ago."

Helping to find a vaccine: Gates said on June 25 that he's aligned with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, on his prediction that there will be a viable vaccine by the end of the year, or early 2021. He said he and Fauci are in constant contact.

In February, Gates, who along with his wife Melinda, run the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, pledged up to $100 million to help contain the coronavirus outbreak around the world. They said the funds would be used to help find a vaccine for the virus, limit its spread and improve the detection and treatment of patients.