As well as helping make the vaccines and treatments available globally, it will also be given to developing countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which lack sufficient material and infrastructure to combat the spread.
Four areas are included in the Gates Foundation's latest pledge, but perhaps the most pressing is the need to develop products, such as vaccines and reliable treatments. This month, Gates appeared on "The Daily Show" and said his foundation would fund factories for the seven most promising potential vaccines.
In an April 7 tweet, Ingraham, a Fox News host, shared a conspiracy theory about nefarious motives behind Gates' call to track and identify who had received a COVID-19 vaccine.
"The vast majority of vaccine candidates fail in those larger trials, the so-called phase-three trials".
Trump has ordered the United States to freeze funding pending a review into the WHO's role in "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus".
"Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as unsafe as it sounds", Gates wrote on Twitter early Wednesday morning.
"This is a unique situation; we are in a unique position to help", Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a statement, adding that since the organization's formation in 2000, "it does feel that the investments we've made, expertise we've built, and experience we've gained over the last two decades has prepared us for this moment". However, he said, the on-ground requirement is much larger and the fund is an open platform for everyone to come together "and support the most critical need of the hour".
On Wednesday, European Commissioner chief Ursula von der Leyen called for a donors' conference on 4 May to help organise the creation and global distribution networks for the vaccine.
Responding to a question on how the pandemic could affect northern Nigeria, Suzman said, "We have worked extensively in the North because it is the poorest part of Nigeria".
Yet getting the production going, he estimated, will cost several billion dollars. On his Instagram page, Kennedy has said Gates pushes vaccines to feed his other business interests. "But there are no dramatic ways to short-cut it". When I joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation past year as its Africa director, I never imagined that the continent would be dealing with a situation of this magnitude, and I salute the continent's leaders for adopting measures to prevent the virus's rapid spread among their populations. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information.
