COVID-19 Meds: Bill Gates Says That COVID-19 Drugs And Treatments Should Go To People Who Need Them, And Not The ‘Highest Bidders’
COVID-19 Meds: With more than 140 vaccine projects and more than 420 drug trials under way 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.
Bill Gates, Billionaire philanthropist (wish he would donate at least a bit to Thailand Medical News!) 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 relying on market forces would prolong the deadly pandemic.
Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said in a video released on last night during a virtual COVID-19 conference organized by the International AIDS Society, “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.”
The World Health Organization and European Commission have warned of an unhealthy competition in the scramble for a medicine seen as key to saving lives and resolving economic chaos sowed by virus, while some officials in Washington have indicated they would seek to prioritize U.S residents.
Bill Gates said efforts begun two decades ago to battle the global HIV/AIDS crisis, when countries came together to eventually make medicines available in most of the world including Africa, can serve as a model for making COVID-19 medicines widely accessible.
He cited as examples 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.
He added, “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.”
One of the countries that has been playing a very selfish attitude has been the United States lead by the Trump Administration. However closer analysis will show that these is not being done for the general welfare of the American people rather there are signs of major corruption and greed involved among certain individuals in the Trump administration.
As one EU health official said on conditions of anonymity,” It ok as we all know that it must be one Trumps family members or friends who are making money from these drug and vaccine deals without any real concern for the American people. Just look at the chloroquine saga, not sure how many Americans died as a result of that and we are not so worried at this stage as they are basically buying ineffectively tested toxic drugs and most probably ineffective vaccines for the American people who are most probably going to be end up death!”
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