Microsoft founder Bill Gates said the coronavirus vaccine should not go to "the highest bidder" and instead must be distributed to the people who need them.
“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,” Gates told the audience of an online Covid-19 conference held 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 added.
Concerns about the coronavirus vaccine going to the wealthiest countries first abound as several nations and companies race to produce a cure. Calls for the vaccine to be considered free for the public are existing.
The World Health Organization announced that 21 candidate vaccines are currently undergoing human clinical trials. Three of these vaccines have already entered the third phase of those trials.
According to Gates, the main lesson from the fight against HIV/AIDS several decades ago is the importance of developing a fair global distribution system to make the cure available for the public.
He noted that the AIDS crisis could be a model in making Covid-19 drugs widely accessible.
“Global cooperation, a resolve to invent the tools and get them out where they’re needed most is critical,” Gates said. “When we have those things, nations, institutions and advocates working together on this collective response, we do see remarkable impact.”
US response to Covid-19 outbreak
Gates has been vocal about the response of the US government to the coronavirus outbreak. He describes it as "embarrassing."
He says that on both a global and national scale, the Covid-19 outbreak is “more bleak than I would have expected.”
“Because our behavior and our contact-tracing is not working well [in the U.S.], we continue to have very large case spread. And it is embarrassing,” Gates said during CNN’s “Coronavirus Town Hall.”
Gates added he is “still pretty disappointed” with the US government’s coronavirus response. He mentions a lack of leadership messages and coordination.
The billionaire thinks that one reason why the US has been hit the hardest is people being ambivalent to observing crucial Covid-19 protocol, which involves wearing a mask and self-quarantining.
“The range of behaviors in the U.S. right now, some people are being very conservative in what they do, and some people are basically ignoring the epidemic, it’s huge,” Gates told CNN. “We’ve worn out people’s patience.”
“Some people almost feel like it’s a political thing, which is unfortunate,” he added.
The philanthropist believes that as economies reopen, people are less open to staying home, quarantining, and wearing a mask. Meanwhile, people who have not been immediately infected by Covid-19, or know someone who has, may not acknowledge the gravity of the situation.
“It’s almost as though people have a willingness to go under lock down once, and for a certain period,” Gates said. “To get them to extended it past a certain [time], or even to inconvenience themselves with masks, requires maybe somebody they know to not only test positive, but maybe get very sick as well.”
