The Gates Foundation on Thursday said it plans to commit an additional $ 250
million to support the “研究,
development and equitable delivery”
of tools to fight Covid-19,
including tests,
treatments and vaccines.
The announcement brings the group’s total commitments to the global Covid-19 response to $ 1.75 十亿.
Gates lauded Biden for “doing his best to retain” 博士. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, 和博士. 安东尼·福西, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who Gates said would be “willing to admit when things aren’t going well” 和 “deliver tough messages.”
“I do think the US will not be one of the worst performers, as the (拜登) team comes into office,” 他加了.
The United States is the nation with the most cases and deaths from Covid-19.
As of Sunday morning,
the US had reported more than 16
million Covid-19 cases and nearly 300,000
deaths since the start of the pandemic, 根据
data from Johns Hopkins University.
Gates noted in his interview that the US “would’ve been expected to be the best” when it came to the pandemic given its federal health agencies and various technologies, 但 “可悲的是 … we didn’t get on top of it like many countries did,” adding that future post-mortems on the crisis “will guide us.”
Biden has laid out a three-point plan to combat the coronavirus pandemic,
including aiming to distribute 100
million vaccine shots in his initial 100 上班天数.
Biden also told Tapper in an interview earlier this month,
that he will ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100
days after he takes office.
During his interview with Tapper, Gates confirmed that he has spoke with Biden about the pandemic.
The price to pay each year “to avoid, 你懂, a trillions of dollars disaster — I think that roadmap’s clear, and I talked with the President-elect about that. 而且你知道, I think our foundation will be part of that dialogue to make sure we don’t blow it again,” Gates said.
The US is close to a vaccine as the Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued an emergency use authorizaton for Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine.
And the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted on Saturday to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16
and older,
moving the US another step closer to being able to inoculate millions of its citizens.
Gates told Tapper that distribution “should be based on medical need, not wealth at all.”
“毕竟, this epidemic has been awful in the way that it’s exacerbated inequities,” 他说.
Gates also said he is “super happy with all of these vaccines” and that when it’s his turn for vaccination, “I will visibly take the vaccine. Because I think that it’s a benefit to all people to not be transmitting.”