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Bill Gates warns of a ‘deadlier pandemic’ if Covid vaccines go only to the highest bidder

WHO has said 21 vaccine candidates are currently being tested on human volunteers. Three of these vaccines are in the third phase of the clinical trials.

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New Delhi: Microsoft founder Bill Gates said Saturday the Covid-19 medication and vaccines should go to the people who need it the most and not just to “the highest bidder”.

“If we just let drugs and vaccines go to the highest bidder, instead of to the people and the places where they are most needed, we’ll have a longer, more unjust deadlier pandemic,” a CNBC report quoted Gates as saying at an online Covid-19 conference organised by the International AIDS Society.

“We need leaders to make these hard decisions about distributing based on equity, not just on market-driven factors,” he said.

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to claim thousands of lives across the globe every day, medical researchers across the world are working on a war-footing to come up with a vaccine for the deadly virus as early as possible.

However, with countries across the world, especially Europe and the US, investing billions of dollars to develop Covid vaccines, concerns have also arisen that “richer nations” may “scoop up” potential Covid treatment, “leaving developing countries empty-handed”, a Reuters report noted Saturday.

The report said the European Commission and the World Health Organization have cautioned against “unhealthy competition” in the race to develop Covid medication and save as many lives and prevent as much economic loss as possible.

The US now has the world’s highest confirmed cases of Covid-19 totalling 3,355,646, followed by Brazil (1,840,812), India (850,827) and Russia (720,547).


Also read: CanSino, Moderna, Novavax: A list of Covid vaccines under clinical trials across the world


 

Gates calls for ‘global cooperation’ 

Speaking at the online event, Gates recalled how countries united to battle HIV/AIDS and made medication available across the world, including in Africa, in the past. He said this should serve as a model method to also make Covid-19 treatment available across the world.

“One of the best lessons in the fight against HIV/AIDS is the importance of building this large, fair global distribution system to get the drugs out to everyone,” he said.

Calling for “global cooperation”, Gates said the world would see “remarkable impact” when it has “nations, institutions and advocates working together on this collective response”.

The World Health Organization has said 21 vaccine candidates under clinical trials are currently being tested on human volunteers. Three of these vaccines are in the third phase of the trials.

According to the CNBC report quoted above, the companies that have made the most progress in developing vaccines are US firm Moderna, UK firm AstraZeneca, and Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech.

There is only one Indian company in WHO’s list of 21 candidate vaccines currently in clinical evaluation — ZyCov-D by Ahmedabad-based Cadila Healthcare Limited (Zydus Cadila).

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also fast-tracked clinical trials of an indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, which it is producing with the Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL).

Nine of the 21 vaccines have the involvement of a Chinese research institute or company, while five of the vaccines have the involvement of an American firm. Among others are those being developed by firms from South Korea, Japan, Australia, Germany, and Russia.


Also read: Why the fight over a coronavirus vaccine will be intense, irrational and even nasty


 

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23 COMMENTS

    • Check your own room for a rat. It might be behind your desk.

      Bill Gates is a philanthropist who is giving away most of his wealth for public health.
      He is not suggesting anything that epidemiologists don’t. He is not claiming he is an expert.
      Bill Gates has never promoted pseudoscience or pushed his opinion over science. He just funds science and medicine where he sees a need.

      His critics are just conspiratorial idiots.

  1. No one is above god.god has given us robust immune system consisting of trillions of cells.it can take care of all viruses and even cancer.bill gates the most greediest and evil person alive on the earth.bill gates polio vaccines hsve killed many in India and bill has be charged for murder and homicifíe

  2. I should say measles and mumps, not small pox.
    Small pox was eradicated by vaccines by 1977.
    Antivaxxers are to blame on why we can’t eradicate many more.

  3. Antivaxxers are classified as the world’s top 10 threats to public health by WHO.
    They are the reason why small pox and measles are coming back when we have the tools to eradicate them.
    They scare people with lies.

    These are dumb people who buy into conspiracy theories in their whatsapp and facebook groups.
    They make proof less accusations against everyone and think that only they know the truth even though none of them have any science education on health.

    All epidemiologists and virologists and really all scientists are advising on vaccines as soon as they become available and these fools go around slandering accomplished people working to make a difference.

    They try to paint this as Gates personal opinion when the reality is all scientists and doctors would agree with him. Gates has never said anything that is different from scientific opinion. It is the antivaxxers that are the science deniers and a danger to humanity.

  4. This man now a Health personality erh.
    We ain’t here to joke .Take your ideas and vaccine. looks as if you care about human lives.

  5. Anti-vaccine idiots are in full force. Every epidemiologist is advising for a vaccine and these dumb trolls say only they know the truth somehow.

  6. it means that, if he did not get the bid he will release a virus more deadly than corona to earn a bid for vaccine… This is such a big traitor to Human Beings

  7. Well if u value good journalism why dont u guys report the truth instead of fake news n scare tatics ..wat r u afraid of…oh sorry thats right the people that own yoj

  8. Why has the world started listening to a Tech Giant CEO, instead of Health professionals epidemiologists, scientists?

    He is treating this as a computer virus and wants to feeds us Antivirus on a yearly basis.

    • The Tech Giant CEO isn’t saying anything different from health professionals, epidemiologists, scientists. They are all saying the same thing.

  9. There is nothing deadlier than this man’s ideas!!
    He wants vaccines for everybody so he and his friends in big pharma can make the maximum amount of money from it!

  10. This man is only after vaccines… He makes virusus himself and then creates the anti virus and vaccines and earn billions…..

    • What a stupid thing to say. Nobody is making any viruses, including China. He is giving away free vaccines with his own money. He is saying don’t make profit with vaccines. Keep them cheap and available to everyone.

      • He has gotten over 7 billion Euro from the eu, taxpayers money to produce a vaccine, its not his own money. He doesent get richer every year by giving money away. He has about 120 billion in his Foundation, if he wanted to do good, he could build a lot of schools, Hospitals or Infrastructure in 3rd world countries. Instead he invests in big Pharma and these health NGOs like WHO, who then recommend his vaccines, which is a complete conflict of intrest

    • Well, you don’t have any proof, if he just wanted to earn money, he would not have donated billions from his wealth just to lose his money, you should search about his contributions.

      • with every donation he avoids paying taxes.. this is a giant PR trick from these super rich multi billionaire’s club like the Rothschild’s, Rockefeller’s, Gate’s, Zed Turner etc. these people are Eugenic’s. population reduction is what they want.

    • EXACTLY.. He is one of the worst human being’s alive, a threat to humanity. a self named health expert without any qualification’s.
      This SarsCov2 has never been isolated & purified. Koch’s postulate’s havn’t been fullfilled. the whole “pandemic” is a big scam. the whole scam start’s with the PCR test’s. this Corona virus is probably around since 8 year’s but they never have developed a pcr test for it. a pcr test can’t detect a virus and can’t detect the viral load. the rate of false positive test results is probably 80%.. that’s why some people tested positive/negative/positive/negative. it’s probably nothing more than a flu with a very low death rate. you don’t get the facts on mainstream media, they are in the hand’s of these super rich oligarch’s. shut off TV and go out demonstrate against totalitarianism/a health dictatorship.

      • Samier, you live in conspiracy delusions. People like you know nothing about diseases, read conspiracy social media and make unprovable claims and insist you are always right.

        When the vaccine is ready, the misinformation and fear you people create with rumors will hinder prevention efforts. People will die because of your conspiracy theories.

        Take your “mainstream media” fever and take a hike. The advice isn’t coming from “mainstream media”. It is coming from top experts that people have known for 40 years.

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