In recent years, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has devoted much of his time to the charitable foundation he founded with his wife, Melinda. In March, he stepped down from the company’s board of directors. The foundation funds various medical projects, including the development of a vaccine against Covid-19. After the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Gates became the hero of conspiracy theories. There are proponents worldwide of the idea that the disease appeared and spread thanks to him. They believe that the billionaire wants to implant microchips in billions of people and thus reduce the world’s population.
Bill Gates discussed his thoughts on these theories and shared his vision for fighting the coronavirus and universal vaccination in an interview with the BBC Today radio program.
Bill Gates: Our challenge is to raise $7.4 billion, and every additional dollar or euro we receive will help us save lives. The importance of vaccines is more evident today than ever before. But we need vaccines not just for diseases like measles, diarrhea and pneumonia. We also need GAVI [the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation] to take over the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine to developing countries. Not only are we raising funds within the GAVI budget, but we have also created a new fund that will be dedicated to procuring the coronavirus vaccine for poor countries.
BBC: Who should get the vaccine first?
B.G.: Healthcare workers in countries with ongoing epidemics should be the first to receive the vaccine. This is because they need to continue their work, save lives and not be exposed to the serious risk they are now facing. Next in line are police and emergency workers – essential service providers. And once they are protected, we can move on to the rest of the population. And if the vaccine proves effective in older adults, which is an important criterion, it should be sent to nursing homes, prisons and homeless shelters to cover those at high risk. This needs to be done on a global scale. Fortunately, we are planning to build several factories in parallel, and we hope that the production volume will be high. However, the distribution of the vaccines will be an interesting task.
BBC: If the vaccine is developed in the US or UK, wouldn’t local people want to get it first?
B.G.: We work with all the pharmaceutical companies that have sufficient manufacturing capacity. We say to them, even if your vaccine is not selected, can we use your facilities around the world to start producing that vaccine as quickly as possible, faster than anyone else? It’s amazing how the pharmaceutical companies say, “Even if our vaccine isn’t the best, we’ll make our factories available.
BBC: First and foremost, perhaps it should be given to health workers from the country where the vaccine was invented.
B.G.: If there is only one factory producing 300 million doses a year, the demand will be very high. There will be strict conditions, including who provided the funding and where the worst epidemic situation was. If 10 factories start production, it will be possible to produce 3 billion doses per year. Then there will be no more special restrictions, and the main problem will be the delivery of vaccines.
BBC: The WHO wants companies to publish their patents and provide open access to all vaccine information. But there are those who say licensing is enough and intellectual property should remain with the creator. Who do you support?
B.G.: Intellectual property is meaningless. We need a vaccine that has passed clinical trials for safety and efficacy. These companies are doing this to help the world. They are not doing it with the thought of profiting from the vaccine. They know it is necessary for everyone. And no matter what conspiracy theories people come up with, the pharmaceutical industry is proving itself in the best possible way. Take the company AstraZeneca, for example. The same can be said for all companies, but I will use it as an example. We advised [Oxford University scientists] to work with a pharmaceutical company because you are excellent specialists, you work quickly, but when it comes to clinical trials and working with manufacturers, you need a pharmaceutical company, and they chose AstraZeneca. The combination of their skills was just incredible. Our foundation is working with AstraZeneca and we are asking them about the plan for India, the plan for China. So if the development of the vaccine is successful, which we hope it will be, there is already a global plan for its mass production. AstraZeneca has said that they do not want to profit from this. They just want to help the world.
BBC: Let’s talk about the conspiracy theories that have flooded the Internet. Some of them mention you, suggesting that you want to take over the world through computer chips that people will get through vaccination. Do you think that could be harmful?
B.G.: If you look at all the rumors and unscientific statements that are out there, then yes – it is leading to the incitement of enmity between people. It is worrying that in times like these, digital tools are being used for all this madness. When we finally have a vaccine, we need to achieve herd immunity so that about 80% of the population is vaccinated. But if they think it’s a scam, or that vaccines are harmful, and people don’t want to be vaccinated, then the disease will continue to kill people. So I am a little concerned about the existence of all these crazy ideas. And I’m a little surprised that some of these theories are about me. We sacrifice money to create a tool, we write checks to pharmaceutical companies. It just so happens that our foundation has a lot of experts in the field of pharmacology, and we are seen as an honest broker between the government and the companies when it comes to choosing the best method.
BBC: Perhaps this is partly related to your words when you mentioned the need to know who has been vaccinated and who has not, and how this will be tracked.
B.G.: Yes, if we are talking about the smallpox vaccine, it left a scar because it was very potent, and in a crowd you could see individuals with such a vaccination. And in order to completely eliminate the disease, everyone had to be vaccinated. So it can be said that a miracle happened because in 1980 this disease was declared eradicated. So when we talk about voluntary registration, yes, we are thinking about how to protect children from the disease, but that does not mean chips or anything like that. Sometimes it’s just ridiculous [because of some theories].
BBC: How will we know who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t?
B.G.: In rich countries, information is documented; in poor countries, data is recorded on paper documents. They are gradually moving to digital technologies, but not fast enough. In India, we are running pilot programs where data is stored on mobile phones so that specialists can determine whether a particular village has been covered.
One of the co-founders of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, has decided to step down from its board of directors, according to a statement released by the company on Friday.