Bill Gates: “Vaccine for everyone or it will be a catastrophe, even moral. Giving it to poor countries is also in our interest”

“The only way to eliminate the threat of COVID-19 somewhere is for remove it in all places“And that is why it is necessary to support the production and finance billions of doses of vaccines that will Poorer countries. The entrepreneur and philanthropist says so Bill gates in the intervention in the General Assembly of United Nations, published by Corriere della Sera. “In all likelihood, a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19 will be available early next year. In fact, there may be more than one, ”says Gates. “Eradication of the disease, however, will not happen automatically. To achieve this, it is necessary to ensure that there iseffective capacity to produce billions of doses of vaccines, find i financing to realize and identify the most suitable strategies for distribution “.

Gates cites the new forecasting models developed by the Northwestern University, useful to understand what would happen to a distribution of the vaccine concentrated in rich countries. “The researchers analyzed two possible scenarios. In the first, vaccines are distributed to all countries depending on the number of inhabitants. In the second, we find ourselves in a situation very close to what is happening these days, that is, that the fifty richest countries the planet will have at its disposal the first two billion doses of vaccine. In this scenario, Gates emphasizes, the virus will continue to spread uncontrollably for four months in three-quarters of the world. And we will see the number of victims double. Would be one moral catastrophe“.

A global operation of this type will bring benefits not only for the near future, but also for the future, according to the founder of Microsoft, the second richest person in the world. “We have much to learn from the ongoing efforts to eradicate the polio – Gates continues – Among the most famous images of campaign against polio in India, there is one that shows a line of healthcare workers, advancing holding i above their heads thermal containers of vaccines, submerged up to the waist in water, in flooded areas, to reach the most remote villages. A similar network of primary health workers will be needed to identify Covid-19 cases in the poorest parts of the world, so that they can reach the most inaccessible areas, where there are no roads. With the help of diagnostic devices, these operators will be able to sound the alarm, in case another disease makes the jump of species, from a bat – or another bird – to infect humans. “

In practice, Bill Gates concludes, “the battle to defeat the COVID-19 will allow us to configure a system which could reduce the risk of new pandemics in the coming years. As I studied their history, I learned that pandemics tend to create a very surprising dynamic between self-interest and altruism. the pandemic represent those rare cases where
the knee jerk reaction of a country to save itself goes hand in hand with the impulse to help others. And we find that self-interest and altruism – guarantee theaccess to vaccines even for poor nations, they are one and the same ”.