Bill Gates
Bill GatesReuters

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Tuesday that the United States missed its chance to avoid mandated shutdowns because it didn’t act fast enough on the coronavirus pandemic.

“The US is past this opportunity to control (COVID-19) without shutdown. We did not act fast enough to have an ability to avoid the shutdown,” said Gates, according to CNBC.

“It’s January when everybody should’ve been on notice,” Gates added. The virus was first discovered in December in China.

Government officials across the country have advised or directed residents in the past days to stay home in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus that has infected at least 46,500 people in the US.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wants businesses to open by Easter, April 12, to soften the economic impact. Government officials and health experts have widely criticized these calls, warning that bringing people back to work will overwhelm the health-care system and lead to more deaths.

Gates acknowledged that self-isolation will be “disastrous” for the economy, but “there really is no middle ground.” He suggested a shutdown of six to 10 weeks.

“It’s very tough to say to people, ‘Hey keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner, we want you to keep spending because there’s some politician that thinks GDP growth is what counts,’” Gates said. “It’s hard to tell people during an epidemic … that they should go about things knowing their activity is spreading this disease.”

Gates added that the United States needs to ramp up its COVID-19 testing abilities and better navigate who actually needs to be tested.

“In terms of testing, we’re still not creating that capacity and applying it to people in need,” Gates said. “The testing thing has got to be organized, has got to be prioritized. That is super, super urgent.”

In a 2015 TED Talk, Gates warned that the next big threat to the world would likely be a highly infectious virus rather than a war.

Referencing his 2015 remarks on Tuesday, he said that “sadly very little was done,” but he remains optimistic.