Gates Pledges $100M for Coronavirus – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
On Wednesday, an immediate commitment of $100 million for coronavirus relief was announced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From the foundation’s initial pledge of $10 million announced last month, this announced is a ten-fold increase from the previous one.
The coronavirus outbreak has triggered a global health emergency infecting nearly 30,000 people and killed nearly 500 people by now and has sent markets tumbling, to tackle this, Bill Gates is one among the handful of billionaires who have donated for the outbreak so far. Some of the other billionaires who extended their support in fighting the outbreak are LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and Citadel’s Ken Griffin. More information on donations from other billionaires for this cause is here.
According to the announced, from the $100 million pledge of the Gates Foundation, agencies such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) will get funding up to $20 million to help in treatment, containment and front-line detection of the disease.
To enhance protections for at-risk populations in South Asia and Africa, another $20 million will aid in protecting the regions
that would get the most hard-hit by epidemics according to the foundation. Funds will help public health authorities to improve treatment capacity, implement effective disease surveillance efforts and to strengthen emergency centers.The remaining $60 million will go towards the diagnostics for sustainable control and prevention to keep the virus from spreading and the longer-term development of vaccines and treatments. Various public and private sector research labs and Global partners such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will receive additional support.
Mark Suzman, Gates Foundation CEO said in a statement, “To slow the pace of the outbreak and to help the countries protect their most vulnerable citizens and to accelerate the development of tools for bringing this epidemic under control, all of us, philanthropies, national governments, the private sector, and multilateral organizations must work together. We hope that these resources will aid start an effective and rapid international response. This response must be built on the steps that the World Health Organization has taken to date and should be guided by science, not fear.”
SOURCE Gates Pledges $100M for Coronavirus
