The COVID-19 pandemic, the first modern pandemic, willdefine this era and no one who lives through this will ever forget it,billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has stressed.
It is impossible to overstate the pain that people arefeeling now and will continue to feel for years to come, he said, adding thatthe disease is disproportionately hurting poorer communities and racialminorities.
“Likewise, the economic impact of the shutdown ishitting low-income, minority workers the hardest. Policymakers will need tomake sure that, as the country opens up, the recovery doesn’t make inequalityeven worse than it already is,” Gates emphasized in a lengthy post onThursday.
The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against thevirus and the damage to health, wealth, and well-being has already beenenormous.
“This is like a world war, except in this case, we’reall on the same side. Everyone can work together to learn about the disease anddevelop tools to fight it. I see global innovation as the key to limiting thedamage.
“This includes innovations in testing, treatments,vaccines, and policies to limit the spread while minimizing the damage toeconomies and well-being,” he added.
Currently, over 70 vaccines are in various stages ofdevelopment globally and 4-5 are in the top race but according to scientists, asuccessful COVID-19 vaccine may take 12-18 months.
“The economic cost that has been paid to reduce theinfection rate is unprecedented. The drop in employment is faster than anythingwe have ever experienced. Entire sectors of the economy are shut down,”said Gates.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week committedadditional $150 million in the global fight against COVID-19, raising its totalfunding to $250 million.
According to Gates, so far, “developing countries likeIndia and Nigeria account for a small portion of the reported global infections.One of the priorities for our foundation has been to help ramp up the testingin these countries so they know their situation”.
One potential treatment that doesn’t fit the normaldefinition of a drug involves collecting blood from patients who have recoveredfrom COVID-19, making sure it’s free of the coronavirus and other infections,and giving the plasma to people who are sick.
A variant of this approach is to take the plasma andconcentrate it into a compound called hyperimmune globulin, which is mucheasier and faster to give a patient than unconcentrated plasma.
“The Foundation is supporting a consortium of most ofthe leading companies that work in this area to accelerate the evaluation and,if the procedure works, be ready to scale it up.
These companies have developed a Plasma Bot to helprecovered COVID-19 patients donate plasma for this effort,” informedGates.
Another type of potential treatment involves identifying theantibodies produced by the human immune system that are most effective againstthe novel coronavirus.
Once those antibodies have been found, they can bemanufactured and used as a treatment or as a way to prevent the disease (inwhich case it is known as passive immunization).
“It depends on how much antibody material is needed perdose; in 2021, manufacturers may be able to make as few as 100,000 treatmentsor many millions. The lead times for manufacturing are about seven months inthe best case,” said Gates.
Gates is hopeful about reopening the economy soon.
“One example of gradual reopening is Microsoft China,which has roughly 6,200 employees. So far about half are now coming in to work.They are continuing to provide support to employees who want to work athome,” informed Gates.
The basic principle should be to allow activities that havea large benefit to the economy or human welfare but pose a small risk ofinfection.
“But as you dig into the details and look across theeconomy, the picture quickly gets complicated. It is not as simple as saying’you can do X, but not Y.’ The modern economy is far too complex andinterconnected for that,” he added.