Bill Gates calls for COVID-19 meds to go to people who need them, not ‘highest bidder’
Pointing out to the global efforts taken to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis, Gates said the HIV model can be adopted for making COVID-19 medicines widely accessible
Billionaire, philanthropist and Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates during a virtual COVID-19 conference organised by the International AIDS Society called for COVID-19 drugs and an eventual vaccine to be made available to countries and people that need them most, not to the “highest bidder,” saying that relying on market forces would prolong the deadly pandemic.
He went on to say that If we just let drugs and vaccines go to the highest bidder, instead of to the people and the places where they are most needed, we’ll have a longer, more unjust, deadlier pandemic.
“We need leaders to make these hard decisions about distributing based on equity, not just on market-driven factors”, he maintained.
With hundreds of vaccine projects underway and governments in Europe and the United States investing billions of dollars in research, trials and manufacturing, there is concern that richer nations could scoop up promising medicines against the new coronavirus, leaving developing countries empty-handed.
The European Commission and the World Health Organization (WHO)have warned of unhealthy competition in the scramble for a medicine seen as key to saving lives and resolving economic chaos sowed by a virus, while some officials in Washington have indicated they would seek to prioritise US residents.
Pointing out to the global efforts taken to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis, Gates said the HIV model can be adopted for making COVID-19 medicines widely accessible.
As an example, he pointed to the 2002-created Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the U.S.-based President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief to get medicines to people to combat some of the world’s deadliest diseases as examples.
“One of the best lessons in the fight against HIV/AIDS is the importance of building this large, fair global distribution system to get the drugs out to everyone,” Gates said.