Bill Gates believes that the COVID-19 pandemic will end by the end of 2021 in rich countries and around the world in 2022.
Bill Gates believes that the pandemic has caused enormous economic damage
Bill Gates is one of the figures in the technology sector that is having the most presence in the COVID-19 pandemic. Through his foundation, the former CEO of Microsoft is investing in developing vaccines, treatments and tests against the virus, although he is aware that we still have a long way to go to end the pandemic. Until 2022, to be precise.
In a recent interview with Wired magazine, Bill Gates believes that the pandemic has caused enormous economic damage and generated “a lot of debt”. However, he believes that “the process of innovation in expanding diagnostics, in new therapies and in vaccines is truly impressive.” Therefore, he estimates that “for the rich world, we should be able to end this by the end of 2021, and for the world in general by the end of 2022.”
150 million dollars to distribute a vaccine that costs three dollars
Although there are some vaccines that appear promising, such as those from Oxford and Moderna, there is still a long way to go to find out if these vaccines are indeed effective. There are questions that remain to be answered, such as whether the antibodies generated by the vaccines can fight the disease and, if so, how long they last.
Developing a vaccine against the virus is a race against time in which Bill Gates has put his own grain of sand. The former CEO of Microsoft recently confirmed that, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he was going to invest $150 million in Serum Institute, the leading global vaccine manufacturer by volume, to produce 100 million doses that, at At most, they will cost three dollars each.
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Gates’ total investment in COVID-19 is $500 million. This money has not only been spent on research, but also on production capacity, so that the vaccine can be brought around the world. In an interview with Bloomberg, Gates claimed to have invested in AstraZenca PLC, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc, as “they are the most scalable and inexpensive.”
Still, Bill Gates believes that the first vaccine will be approved in early 2021, although he believes that “in terms of its effectiveness against disease and transmission, it will not be ideal and may not last long.” More effective vaccines will take longer to develop, says Gates, who is optimistic about therapies in development to treat the virus, which could help reduce death rates.
