Bill Gates: Coronavirus could end in many countries by 2022

Bill Gates remains optimistic that a coronavirus vaccine will be developed soon and the deadly Covid-19 will end "for the world at large by the end of 2022." Unfortunately, that end is still at least a year away, he told Wired's Steven Levy.

"You have to admit there’s been trillions of dollars of economic damage done and a lot of debts, but the innovation pipeline on scaling up diagnostics, on new therapeutics, on vaccines is actually quite impressive," he said in an interview to Wired.

"And that makes me feel like, for the rich world, we should largely be able to end this thing by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022."

The Gates Foundation has been working towards increasing access to immunization in poor countries.

Gates says that he fears that in nations like Russia and China, the pressure to have a vaccine is so high that regulators may be allowing shots to be given to humans before the vaccines are known to be safe and effective.

"We probably need three or four months — no matter what — of phase 3 data, just to look for side effects," Gates said. "The FDA, to their credit, at least so far, is sticking to requiring proof of efficacy."

The Gates Foundation has been working towards increasing access to immunization in poor countries.

In India, Pune-bases Serum Institute of India joined hands with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI vaccine alliance to accelerate the manufacture and delivery of up to 100 million of coronavirus vaccine doses for India and other low-income countries as early as 2021.

The candidate vaccines, including those from AstraZeneca and Novavax, will be priced at $3 per dose and will be made available in 92 countries in GAVI's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker said in a statement.

COVAX aims to deliver 2 billion doses of approved and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.

Adar Poonawalla's Serum Institute of India has entered into agreements with several leading vaccine candidates to provide for an effective and efficient vaccine to the Indian public when the vaccine is finally out.