Bill Gates Opposed to Distributing Vaccines Worldwide
With calls for the distribution of coronavirus vaccines internationally, Bill Gates disagrees with immediate action taking place.
Following the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in response to the ongoing worldwide pandemic, Gates is accused of withholding vaccine recipes from developing nations due to his response in a recent interview.
“Bill Gates opposes sharing vaccine formulas with the global poor to end the pandemic,” reads one headline. “Bill Gates under fire for saying vaccine formulas shouldn’t be shared with developing world.”
Gates Discussed Pandemic Impact in 2016
Bill Gates has long supported the need for preparedness against pandemics and delivered a well-known TED talk in 2015, highlighting the alarming potential death toll that a global pandemic could bring.
Save Lives or Protect Intellectual Property?
In the interview, Gates was asked if it would be beneficial to modify intellectual property laws to allow for the sharing of vaccine formulas.
Gates answers, “No,” which by itself could be interpreted as him standing up for intellectual property law and refusing to share vaccine formulas with developing nations. But then Gates goes on to answer the inevitable follow-up question: “Why not?”
In fact, Gates said, it is due to the complexity of manufacturing safe vaccines.
“There are limited vaccine factories globally, and vaccine safety is of utmost importance,” he stated. “The primary challenge we face is not intellectual property; it’s the rigorous testing and regulatory approval required for vaccine production. Every manufacturing process must be meticulously scrutinized for safety.”
“We have obtained the necessary rights from the vaccine companies, and they have actively cooperated with us,” he added.
Despite debates about vaccine distribution, people are still dying from the virus in America and abroad.
