Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is optimistic about coronavirus vaccine development. This The first two vaccine candidates The FDA is likely to receive authorization, one from Pfizer and one from Modern, which seems 95 percent effective against coronavirus. But Gates has even more hope for vaccines that have not yet made big headlines, with enthusiasm for vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.
“Almost all vaccines will work and with very high levels of effectiveness,” Gates told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview on Sunday. “I’m hopeful that by February it is likely that it will all prove very effective and safe.”
But the world is not yet out of the woods.
“We have to be very concerned about the next six months,” Gates said. He added that he expects the daily mortality rate from most of the winter viruses to be above 1,000. He also discussed issues of testing and vaccine delivery, but thinks those challenges will be met.
“A little imperfectly, I think the logistics will be solved,” Gates said. “Over time, we will reach a level of more than 70 percent to prevent the spread of the disease.”
Gates says his own Thanksgiving dinner will be small and he will set up a video connection with the family not attending. He urged Americans to wear masks and social distance as we wait for the vaccine.
“You know, try not to give your family the last death in this epidemic because you’re ready to see it until the spring, when the vaccine will really start to reduce that number,” he said.
