“By the end of next year, the situation could return to more or less normal, in the best possible case,” Gates, 69, said at a virtual summit of CEOs under the auspices of the WSJ.
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“We still don’t know if these vaccines will work,” he said. “Increasing capacity will take some time. The division within the United States and between the United States and other countries will also be a major source of contention, ”he added.
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Gates, to whom Microsoft made a fortune, has so far invested $ 36 billion (823.8 billion crowns) in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on combating extreme poverty and poor health care. Sixteen pharmaceutical companies signed an agreement with the foundation in September, pledging, according to Gates, to increase production unprecedentedly and ensure that the vaccine goes into general distribution as soon as possible.
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Substances developed by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer in collaboration with the German biotechnology company BioNTech and the British AstraZeneca in collaboration with scientists from Oxford University are identified as favorites in the vaccine approval plant in the West.
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World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that the covid-19 vaccine could be ready by the end of this year.
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Russian and Chinese vaccines may not be bad, but testing is lacking
“We are also negotiating with Russia and China,” Gates said. “But none of their vaccines are in the third phase of testing, overseen by a highly regarded regulator,” he added.
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Russia became the first country in the world to approve a anti-coronavirus vaccine in August. The substance has been tested on humans for less than two months and the scope and adequacy of the tests have been questioned by Western experts. According to some, Russia prefers national prestige to science and security on this issue.
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Gates said that from a scientific point of view, Russian and Chinese vaccines are absolutely justified projects, but the absence of a respected study from the third phase of testing may reduce the attractiveness of these vaccines abroad. “Western companies are ahead of the way in this third phase of testing, so if they come out and (vaccines) are offered at a low price, I doubt there will be a lot of vaccines exported from China and Russia,” he said.
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In the United States, according to Gates, it is now necessary to reduce hesitation and get people vaccinated when the vaccine is available.
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