18.09.2020
12:08
Microsoft founder believes there will be no approval before November
September 15, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
Bill Gates believes that the first of the vaccines to seek official approval will be the one being developed by Pfizer (Gates Foundation)
” None of the vaccines are likely to seek approval in the United States before the end of October .” The phrase corresponds to Bill Gates , founder of Microsoft and who has become an emblem of the fight against the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease. The businessman and philanthropist is not optimistic about the possibility that an effective and preventive cure against the pandemic will be found and he risked that only one of the trials that are in the final phase could lead to a true immunity.
Gates , who has donated millions of dollars in the development of a cure against the coronavirus, indicated that he sees it difficult for one to come to light before the end of the year and that if that happened only one of the candidates could reach the goal: that of Pfizer . ” The only vaccine that, if everything goes perfectly, could apply for an emergency use license at the end of October, would be that of Pfizer, ” he concluded in a teleconference interview with the CNBC television network.
“ I think once we get into, say, December or January, at least two or three are likely to seek approval, if they are really effective. And so we have these phase three trials that are ongoing. The only vaccine that, if everything goes perfectly, could request the emergency use license at the end of October, would be Pfizer ”, he predicted.
The other two that Gates refers to are the one being developed by the Moderna company and the one more widespread, that of the University of Oxford – which yesterday announced that it was resuming the tests – in conjunction with the AstraZeneca laboratory. Regarding the effectiveness of these vaccines, the president of the Gates Foundation – who leads together with his wife Melinda – was optimistic since they demonstrated in the previous phases that he had developed immunity in the volunteers who underwent the experimental trials.
FILE PHOTO: According to Bill Gates the most advanced development against the coronavirus is the vaccine that is in the works of Pfizer. For the founder of Microsoft it could be before the end of the year (Reuters)
That foundation owns shares in Pfizer , but also in other companies that are developing vaccines, but at an earlier stage, such as Johnson & Johnson and Merck .
Regarding the fears that arose from the fact that the doses could be approved before they are safe – as is the case in other countries – Gates was confident that the laboratory companies have already announced that they would not request authorization from the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA , for its acronym in English) unless they are absolutely certain that they will not cause any harm to the body and will be effective against COVID-19 .
In some circles there is a suspicion that permits could be granted without the security that a launch of this magnitude requires. But the founder of Microsoft was calm in that regard: “ The good news is that the main vaccine companies said today that they will not even apply for the emergency use license until they have a proof of efficacy. We also have to follow all the safety steps so that people feel that they want to participate in the application of this vaccine ”.
In another interview with the STATNews site, Gates also questioned the White House’s treatment of the pandemic. “ You know, this has been a poorly managed situation every step of the way. It is shocking. It’s incredible, the fact that we are among the worst in the world . ”
When will the pandemic end
Gates predicted that it will likely be late next year when the United States emerges from the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent interview with Bloomberg , he advanced that outside the United States, it could take even longer, stretching health and financial instability until 2022.
According to his estimates, “for the rich world, we should be able to end this (COVID-19) by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022.” He added: “ The strongest response will probably come from the protein subunit. With so many companies working on it, we can afford quite a few failures and still have something low-cost and long-lasting . ”
As much as people would like to go back to work, or to school, or to church, or wherever, “the real end will come from the natural spread of infections and from the vaccine that produces herd immunity,” said the founder of Microsoft.
Days ago, in an interview with Wire , Gates explained that one of the reasons why the US is still far from a new normal is the way it is tested . “Most of the coronavirus tests in the US are wasteful, completely garbage.” For him, in most cases the results do not arrive in time for the infected to change their behavior to avoid infecting other people.
