Coronavirus vaccine can upto two years, says Bill Gates
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose foundation is focusing its efforts to fight the coronavirus, explained on Thursday that life will return to normal only when there’s a viable vaccine that can stop its spread. In a blog post, Bill Gates wrote, "the world is creating this vaccine [coronavirs vaccine] on a historically fast timeline. Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he thinks it’ll take around eighteen months to develop a coronavirus vaccine."
"I agree with him, though it could be as little as 9 months or as long as two years," Gates wrote in his blog.
The billionaire philanthropist said that even if it takes 18 months, that would still be the fastest that scientists have created a new vaccine. He also added that that eight to ten of the 115 current COVID-19 vaccine candidates look promising.
“I’m particularly excited by two new approaches that some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines," he wrote. “It might be a bit hard to see right now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel."
Bill Gates on Coronavirus Vaccine:
- "For COVID-19, financing development is not an issue. Governments and other organizations (including our foundation and an amazing alliance called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) have made it clear they will support whatever it takes to find a vaccine," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote in his blog gatesnotes.com .
- "Compressing the trial timeline isn’t the only way to take a process that usually takes five years and get it done in 18 months. Another way we’re going to do that is by testing lots of different approaches at the same time."
- “Since we might not have time to do multi-year studies, we will have to conduct robust phase 1 safety trials and make sure we have good real-world evidence that the vaccine is completely safe to use."
- “I suspect a vaccine that is at least 70 percent effective will be enough to stop the outbreak. A 60 per cent effective vaccine is useable, but we might still see some localized outbreaks."
- “What we can do now is build different kinds of vaccine factories to prepare. Each vaccine type requires a different kind of factory. We need to be ready with facilities that can make each type, so that we can start manufacturing the final vaccine (or vaccines) as soon as we can."
- “We’re doing the right things to get a vaccine as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I urge you to continue following the guidelines set by your local authorities. Our ability to get through this outbreak will depend on everyone doing their part to keep each other safe."
Bill Gates Explains COVID-19 Vaccine | Watch
