Microsoft Founder Bill Gates Believes That Making COVID-19 Vaccine Available Even To A Select Few Will Stop The Spread

Microsoft founder Bill Gates staunchly believes that things will change for the best even if only a minority of the U.S population gets access to the COVID-19 vaccine, once available.

In an interview with The Economist, Gates on Tuesday voiced his perspectives about the current scenario, and opined how “slow initial testing efforts and some Americans' refusal to wear masks” were to blame for the unprecedented spike in the infections.

But, Gates was optimistic about the way things were headed and believed that an effective vaccine would “bring the pandemic to an end,” even if it meant only a meager 30-60 percent of the population getting access to it. Gates also added that he’s hoping for the vaccine to be “inexpensive and highly dispersable” and seemed to be banking his hopes on AstraZeneca to drop something viable at the earliest to the U.S. markets.

The Trump administration recently claimed that the U.S population could expect a vaccine to come through by the end of 2020 or in 2021.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has so far contributed $350 million to the Coronavirus relief and research. The American entrepreneur’s enthusiasm and support for investments in medicine development have been met with skepticism in the past, with several conspiracy theories pointing to how his stance on vaccines was a well-thought-through strategy to track the lifestyles of billions of people.

As per a recent poll by Yahoo/YouGov, over 1,600 adults in the U.S. were surveyed online between May 20 and 21 to gauge their perspectives about the theory. A sizeable 44 percent of Republicans believed that the debunked theory about Gates is promoting a COVID-19 vaccine campaign to track people’s movements were true. On the other hand, roughly about 20% of Democrats said they believed the theory.

Both the Gates and the organization have time and again refuted all the claims. The Foundation categorically mentions on their website that “vaccines are a powerful tool to fight disease and save lives. Over the past few decades, vaccines have been responsible for the eradication of smallpox and saving people from getting diseases like polio, meningitis, and measles. In some cases, the rate of disease spread has been reduced by more than 90 [percent].”