Also, dont forget to spay and neuter your virus. For more on the latest breakthroughs, ill turn it over now to my colleague dr. Scruffles. Dr. Scruffles, get out of the garbage bad doctor bad doctor announcer its the late show with Stephen Colbert tonight stephen welcomes bill gates and claire danes and mandy patinkin, featuring jon batiste and stay homin. And now, live on tape from a safe dis stephen hi, everybody. Welcome to a late show. Were in the middle of a fight in the room. Do we need to clean up the area . I dont think so because you cant see it. I can and im fine with it. Welcome to the late show. Im your host, Stephen Colbert. Last night, i talked about the governors who have decided to reopen their states in opposition to the federal guidelines, but one day later, im happy to report that cooler heads have prevailed in our nations leadership, because the Insane Clown Posse is calling off its annual gathering of the juggalos festival. Theyve also officially changed their name to the rational clown posse. Of course, this move will disappoint fans of i. C. P. , known as juggalos, seen here confusing their grandparents. Yesterday, the clown posses record label, psychopathic records, issued a statement with thousands of deaths during the covid19 outbreak, we refuse to risk even one juggalo life by hosting a gathering during these troubling times. So, these guys respect science more than the governor of georgia. Science. Fire, dirt. bleep magnets. How do they work . Stephen you know who i wish believed in science as much as the Insane Clown Posse . The insane clown president. It turns out that the director of the lead federal agency searching for a Coronavirus Vaccine was fired because of his concern about trumps coronavirus treatment theory. Dr. Trump is canning medical experts just because they disagree with his random notions of health. You know any day now, the new food pyramid is going to look like this. The official in question is former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority an husky anderson cooper, dr. Rick bright. Trump fired a guy named dr. Bright. He also let go professor smarty, dr. Savior, and secretary i have the cure dont fire me. Apparently, behind the scenes, dr. Bright opposed the cure that trump likes. What was that again . Chloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine. The hydroxychloroquine. The chloroquine. The hydroxychloroquine. Hydroxy. Chlor. Chloroquine. What do you have to lose . Take it. I really think they should take it. Stephen its the most blatant president ial drugpushing since the 1956 campaign, ike likes coke. Trumps been pushing this even though there has been no conclusive research. After getting fired, dr. Bright said, i believe this was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by congress to address the covid19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. as trump hey, look, my ideas dont lack scientific merit. They lack any merit. Ready for another . Boof some listerine. Couldnt hurt. I mean, it stings. But thats how you know its working. Even with dr. Bright gone, the president isnt without advice, because trump regularly tells visitors to the oval office that he is in touch with doctors in new york, including his own, who youll remember looks like this. Hello im dr. Kooky. Maybe we can cure the coronavirus with these loose pills i found in the cupholder of my camry. One of them is a gel cap. Its got to do something. Dignity. Always dignity. Dr. Brights not the only expert that trump is shutting up. Enter c. D. C. Director and man passionately describing his stolen maracas, robert redfield. On tuesday, dr. Redfield told the Washington Post that theres a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through. And if you dont remember how difficult this winter was, it had trumps acquittal, the australian bushfires, and cats the movie. Redfield said it would be a tough winter because wed be fighting a flu epidemic and a coronavirus epidemic at the same time. And redfield added that it hasnt been easy explaining this to everyone. When ive said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they dont understand what i mean. as redfield yes. others got very confused. others stopped listening to me, turned on some cartoons and i had to say, this is important, president others. Others wasnt happy about redfield saying this to the Washington Post. So he summoned dr. Redfield to his daily press briefing, and said theres a simple explanation. Dr. Robert redfield was totally misquoted in the media on his statement about the fall season and the virus. Totally misquoted. I spoke to him and he said it was ridiculous. He was misquoted, totally misquoted. Stephen okay, i guess he was totally misquoted in the Washington Post. I am accurately quoted in the s what heaid. St. Redfield then tried to explain that he had been right all along but so had trump. I think it is really important to emphasize what i didnt say. I didnt say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be complica or more difficult. Doesnt mean itll be more impossible. Doesnt mean its going to be more, as some people have said, worse, it just means more difficult. Stephen how can something thats more difficult not be worse . I didnt say nine was bigger than seven. I just said it was more number. A trump went one step further and said next years virus wont be worse. Thee may not a be virus at all. If the corona comes back. And he doesnt even know if it is going to. It is estimated it might not come back at all, jim. It might not come back at all. I personally hope it doesnt come back in the fall. Stephen you hope . Mr. President , hope is not a plan. I hope you dont come back in the fall, but that doesnt mean i havent stockpiled. Medicine, in case you do. Mmm. Massive doses. Still, hearing that the virus may not come back was comforting. For a while. We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that. There will be coronavirus in the fall. Stephen so we just better pray that coronavirus is cured by pumpkin spice. But dont think the president doesnt value expertise. Oh, no. We just found out that secretary of health and Human Services alex azar tapped a former dog breeder to lead the governments daytoday response to the coronavirus. Sure. But why not just cut out the middle man and appoint a dog . My dog benny is available. Come on, up, up, up there you go there you go see . Technically, hes a dog breeder, too. Want some turkey . There you go. Benny, up, up, up there you go. Say hi to the people. Do you have any ideas of how to fight the coronavirus . Whats that . Give you more turkey . I dont see how that would help, but as a great man once said. What the hell do you have to lose . making sounds to get attention up here. Thats right. Youre going to be the head of infectious disease. Thats right. Youre going to be the head of the n. I. H. Thats right, thats right byebye, no more turkey hes going to go straight for my throat. The dog breeder in charge of keeping you alive is brian harrison, and until 2018, he ran a Company Called dallas labradoodles. Now we know who crossbred trumps hair. Trumps gotten a lot criticism for how hes handled the crisis, but yesterday he unveiled a new plan to fix everything. I am excited to announce that in the coming weeks, the air force thunderbirds are incredible, and the navy blue angels, equally incredible, will be performing air shows over americas major cities and some of the cities that arent major cities. Were paying tribute to our Front Line Health Care workers confronting covid. Stephen thats right. Hes fighting a respiratory virus with our military. Just like in the tom cruise classic, top lung. But a jet plane flyby isnt just fun and games theyre going to bee doing a lot of work, a lot of dangerous flying. Its dangerous, you know the odds when you start going at massive speeds and you are 18 inches away from each other. Stephen 18 inches . That is dangerous. Those planes should be flying at least six feet apart. And you cant go outside to watch it. In order to avoid drawing crowds, the planes will avoid flying over areas where people can congregate. So, youll just get to hear them roar overhead. All in all, a beautiful tribute briefly giving each and every american the sense of what its like to live near laguardia. During the pandemic, congress has been approving money for states that are struggling. But that could all end soon, thanks to Senate Majority leader and profile in porridge, mitch mcconnell. Yesterday, mcconnell said that instead of getting any more money from the federal government, states should consider bankruptcy. Bankruptcy . Really . Theyre american states, not trump casinos. Unsurprisingly, mcconnells screw the states plan isnt very popular with the states. Not even among conservatives. Last night, new york republican congressman peter king tweeted that taking away funding for cops, firefighters and healthcare workers makes mcconnell the Marie Antoinette of the senate. A powerful image. What would that look like . I have seen too much. I muy ey hey, im very excited about my guest tonight, billionaire philanthropist and velma from scooby doo, bill gates. Gates warned the world that we werent ready for a pandemic in a ted talk in march 2015. Notice that despite his dire prediction, hes wearing a cheery pink sweater. The worse the news, the happier his outfit. Tonight, i just hope hes not dressed as a teletubby. Weve got a show for you tonight. Ill be talking to bill gates. Stick around. Here are the actual questions. Then joined by the stars of homeland, claire danes and mandy patinkin, to talk about the Series Finale this sunday. Stick around. Whatd we decide on the flyers again . Uh, fifteen minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. I think were gonna swap over to over seventyfive years of savings and service. What, were just gonna swap over . Yep. Pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. Pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over . Thats right. Instead of all this that ive already . Yeah. What are we gonna do with these . Keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. Geico. Over 75 years of savings and service. Life is too far you cant do it on your own but time will show and dont you know how bad we need each other . You know what im saying . Hmmm. Mmm. Mmmm. Mmmm confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Find yours at letsmakeaplan. Org. Stephen welcome back, everybody. Joining me now is the cofounder of microsoft and coe chair of the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Please welcome bill gates. Hi, thanks for joining us. Nice to see your house. Stephen its nice to see yours, too, unless youre broadcasting from the billionaire bunker on the moon you share with jeff bezos. Yeah, at the club. Stephen whose night is it to cook, elon musks . Absolutely. Stephen well, sir, everybodys talking about the ted talk you gave in 2015 about the crisis that a coming pandemic would mean. Why was this so obvious to you and others that this was something that we had to prepare for . Well, once a disease is humantohuman trance admissible, then it transmissible, thent it can spread across the globe because theres so much more international travel, were more at risk today than any time in history. A flu or a coronavirus like that literally could kill tens of millions. So we should have practiced. We should have said whos going Contact Tracing, and gotten the interventions diagnostics, drugs, vaccines so theyre ready to go much faster. Sadly, very little of that was done. Stephen if im not mistaken, those are things youre saying neo e prepared in 2015. Did anybody listen . Yes, there was a little bit of work done, maybe about 5 of what should have been done, a group called coalition for epidemic preparedness innovations created, made a progress on a few of these vaccine platforms actually that are amongst the first now that are going into human meoday tt y innovation is the key to limiting the damage. What innovation are you talking about . Whats the number one priority . T what do we have to innovate first . Well, in the near term, its the scaling up of testing and prioritizing who gets testing and getting the quick results. In the midterm, its these treatments that can cut the death rate down potentially dramatically, and then the final solution, which is a year to two years off, is the vaccine. So weve got to go fullspeed ahead on all three fronts. Stephen just to head off the conspiracy theorists, maybe we shouldnt call the vaccine the final solution, maybe just the best solution, okay. Yeah, the return to normal solution. Stephen exactly. Are you aware that there are people out there who have these conspiracy these are that this was created by you to inoculated everyone in the world and put a chip into their blood so you can track them . Yeah, thats very strange that the organization thats about saving lives and warning, you know, gets attacked as though we were somehow connected to it. Stephen well, you dont save our lives, you cant control our brains. laughter now, you say that the medicines or the treatments that are out there right now, what are the things that you do you have do you have any knowledge of something that is sort of a leading candidate to treat the coronavirus right now . Theres many that im very hopeful about. The one that is maybe the most promising is taking the blood of recovered patients, the plasma, and then being able to put that back into people who have the disease. That has a reasonable chance of working and in the next few months will get data abouthncona down, so the amount you need to give to help somebody is actually pretty small. So even in developing countries, this is intervention that could be scaled up and could work in a powerful way. Stephen do you have any sense of where the world is on testing right now . Is there a cheap and easy test coming down the pipe that we havent heard about . Well, the Testing Capacity if youre organized properly is high. The p. C. R. Machines, theres a lot of them out there, but the government has to find them and tell people who should be prioritized to have access to those machines. In the meantime, there are innovations like a test an athome test that we could have as soon as a few months from now that would add to at the overall capacity, and thats really important because youre blind. Without quick results, prioritized testing, youre blind whether your policies are going to cause a surge that would put us back into the bad situation we have right now. Stephen so if there is not wide testing, is there any way to know what the next proper step would be . Well, you will always eventually see if youve made a mistake and you open up too much because your i. C. U. S will fill up and your deaths will go back. What you would like is to catch it literally three weeks before that by seeing the positive tests go up, and then you will go too far and certain activities need to brehave en doing. Clearly, right now, in most parts to have the u. S. , you know, the infection rate is starting to go down. Well, thats good news, but, of course, no one wants to stay in this lockdown. So understanding which things create low risk and high benefit, thats the challenge in policy we have today. Stephen now, easyfor us to say that the lockdown should continue because youre doing fine financially, and im still working my job because of the technology that we have, but there are 26 million people, perhaps more, out there who are out of a job right now, and it is perfectly reasonable to want things to open up as quickly as we can. Do you have any advice to these people, any words of patience or hope for them as to how we can to it best . Well, we will get back to normal, but were going to have a pretty long period of seminormal, and stephen what does seminormal mean . That people will still be afraid. Youre not likely to fill a stadium or a theme park, even if the government said please, please do, you know, people want to protect their health, they dont want to infect their parents. So a lot of Business Models where you have to fill up planes or restaurants, they just arent going to work until we can appropriately get the risk of infection down very dramatically. So im very hopeful that things like manufacturing and construction with the right protocols or even school with the right protocols, we can gelt those going, but we wont be able to do everything, because we saw that cause that exponential increase that, unfortunately, we caught it in time before it got to the whole population, but not before substantial deaths. Stephen now, ive heard a lot about Contact Tracing. You said thats very important. How do you do that . What is Contact Tracing . Well, the idea is that if i test positive, we want to make sure that anybody who i might have infected finds out very quickly before they infect someone else, and this pcr test is actually quite sensitive, so we need to find out who those le arethat yo the locations you have been to, and not only does that help us for that individual case, it gives us a pattern of whats going on, you know, why is meat packing, you know, associated widespread, could you change that. Cruise ships first showed us how tough close quarters are for it. So Contact Tracing, we need to step up for that. We need to get that data. The countries like south korea and germany, who have done this well, they have been able to avoid the lockdown, and this is what will help us avoid the rebound. Stephen the u. S. Has cut funding to the w. H. O. , and, now, you said, in a tweet last week, that this is just as dangerous as it sounds. How dangerous does it sound to you . Well, the w. H. O. , is you know, a Small Organization smaller organization than people think. Its about a thousand the budget of the u. S. Healthcare system, but it is where people come together to talk about the drugs and the testing and the statistics. So i think, once the u. S. Steps back and looks at this, they wont cut the funding. Theyll actually increase the funding because w. H. O. s playing that central role. Its fine to say, like everyone, they could have reacted in different ways, but we need them. We need them