Shortly after Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, the couple set the bold goal of putting a “computer in every office and in every home.” When the once unimaginable goal was achieved, it propelled Gates to world fame and fortune and made its name synonymous with innovation and technology.
More than forty-five years after co-founding Microsoft and helping launch the information age, Bill Gates seems to stand firm in his commitment to innovating and solving the world’s most complicated issues, including climate change. malaria and Covid19 pandemic.
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In March last year, two days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, Gates announced plans to vacate Microsoft’s board of directors to devote more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. a philanthropic initiative started by the husband – the wife’s team in 2000.
A voracious reader and consumer of information, Gates is often found spilling over into research links about the world’s most pressing challenges, which was witnessed by 60-minute correspondent Anderson Cooper when he interviewed him.
In 2015, during the Ebola epidemic in Africa, Gates’s focus was on pandemic prevention, paying attention to a strong warning in a 2015 TED Talk that was viewed over 72 million times on streaming platforms.
“If something kills more than 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s more likely to be a highly infectious virus than a war,” Gates told the TED audience. “Not missiles, but microbes. Now part of the reason for this is that we’ve invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents. But in fact we’ve invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic. We’re not ready for the next one.” epidemic “.
Gates said for 60 minutes that the United States should have made a relatively nominal investment in developing the ability to test for PCR diagnosis before it became an extreme need.
“You could have launched the tests so quickly,” Gates told Cooper. “If you earn a month in that capacity, it’s a completely different epidemic for the country.”
Gates said there were “mistakes” in the American response to the pandemic, but the nation’s role in vaccine research and development has helped the world “immensely.”
To date, the Food and Drug Administration has only issued an Emergency Use Authorization for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Both are mRNA-based vaccines and are the first of their kind to be widely distributed outside of clinical trials in the United States.
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Gates and his foundation have long supported mRNA vaccine technology. He hopes that using it to meet future medical needs is one of the many innovations that will be achieved in an otherwise challenging year.
A pandemic year in which science took center stage and skeptics about it tried to sow doubt in the research and expertise of top scientists.
“We need to make the truth more interesting than the overly simplistic conspiracy,” Gates said for 60 minutes. “You may need to slow down crazy things. You need innovation to think about how you draw these lines and especially when you go out and expose strangers to something that might draw them into a series of lies. “
At 65, innovation remains a central force in Bill Gates’ life. Instead of building on the success of a successful career, reflection is urgently replaced by the desire to complete monthly initiatives that could save millions of lives and ensure its work lasts for generations.
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“I don’t think inheritance motivates anyone,” Gates helps Cooper. “I’m thinking, Lord, do we, you know, hope for 20 to 30 years where, you know, can we eradicate malaria in this time frame? Can we lay the foundations for a climate solution in this time frame? so I feel a little bit of a sense of urgency in which, after 30 years, I don’t get involved in anything.
The videos above were produced by Keith Zubrow and Sarah Shafer Prediger. They were edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.