Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the US wants to support all of humanity when asked about the executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which prioritizes the delivery of the vaccine to Americans before it goes to individuals in other countries.
"Sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the pandemic. the IHME forecast shows over 200,000 additional deaths. If we would follow the rules, in terms of wearing masks and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of those deaths," Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told CNN.
In recent weeks, the US has been experiencing record high cases, deaths, and hospitalisations. "I thought the US would do a better job handling it," said Gates, who in 2015 had warned the world of such a pandemic.
"Overall, when I did the forecasts in 2015, I talked about the deaths potentially being higher. So, this virus could be more fatal than it is. We didn't get the worst-case. But the thing that has surprised me is that the economic impact in the US and around the world has been much greater than the forecasts that I made five years ago," he said.
The COVID-19 has so far killed more than 290,000 people in the US.
Gates said that his foundation has been funding a lot of the research for the vaccines. "We're very agile. We're a partner in a thing called CEPI, which is the second biggest funder after the US government," he said.
The US needs to help all of humanity, Gates said when asked about the executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which prioritises the distribution of the vaccine to Americans before it goes to people in other countries.
"We want the world economy to be going. We want to minimize the deaths. And, you know, the basic technology is a German company. And so, blocking international sharing and cooperation has been disruptive and a mistake during this entire pandemic," he said.
Responding to a question, Gates said he will take the vaccine publicly as former US presidents, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama, have said to increase the confidence of people in the vaccine.
"I will do the same. When it's my turn -- I'm not going to budge, but when my turn comes up, I will visibly take the vaccine, because I think that it's a benefit to all people to not be transmitted," he said.
Gates said that access to the vaccine should be based on medical need, not wealth at all.
"After all, this epidemic has been awful in the way that it's exacerbated inequities. It's been worse for Hispanics, worse for blacks, worse for low-income service workers, multigenerational households, a number of things that mean that, in terms of picking who gets the vaccine, we better be using equity to drive all those decisions," he said.
Despite the availability of the vaccine, Gates said the next four to six months rally call on Americans to do their best. "because we can see that this will end, and you don't want somebody you love to be the last to die of coronavirus," he said.
"Certainly, mask-wearing has essentially no downside. they are not expensive. Bars and restaurants in most of the country will be closed as we go into this wave. And I think, sadly, that's appropriate. Depending on how severe it is, the decision about schools is much more complicated because, there, the benefits are pretty high, the amount of transmission is not the same as in restaurants and bars," Gates said.
In response to another question, Gates said that the "transition is complicating" the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
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