Bill Gates has a way of coming out of the shadows during difficult and confusing times, and reminding everyone just how ahead of the game and inspiring he always is. His foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has recently announced its plan to build new medical centers and factories for promising COVID-19 vaccine development.
There are 7 vaccines that are being developed at the moment, but it is likely that only 1 or 2 of them will be produced in the end.
Gates announced this plan during an interview he conducted at-home with Trevor Noah from The Daily Show.
Bill Gates Thinking Proactively
Gates mentions that his foundation has a large amount of expertise when it comes to infectious diseases that he decided to fund things, like the efforts to develop a vaccine, in order to be more prepared for what is to come. He also mentions that his money can help to speed things up.
While building the factories to develop the 7 vaccines can result in a waste of billions of dollars in terms of construction costs, having facilities and medical centers that are ready for treatments will pay off in the end by saving thousands of lives.
Bill Gates doesn’t want to waste time when figuring out which vaccine works and in turn, building the factory.
History in Health
An op-ed was published in the Washington Post last week where Bill Gates states that if we do everything right, a safe and effective vaccine can be developed in order to bring the disease to an end. According to him, this can be done in less than 18 months which would be the fastest a vaccine has ever been developed.
Bill Gates believes that if the right decisions are made now using information backed by science, data, and experienced medical professionals, they can save lives and help the country get back to work.
The Gates Foundation has been involved in other initiatives to combat the novel coronavirus. The foundation pledged $100 million to identify, assess, develop, and scale-up the treatments for the virus.