Coronavirus: Bill Gates urges US to help poorer nations develop Covid-19 vaccines

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged more than $250m towards coronavirus research

A German Red Cross medical staff holds a smear-test stick of a traveller who returned from the Ukraine, after a voluntary coronavirus test at the new testing centre at the central bus station in Berlin, Germany. Reuters

Notes to medical personnel are hung in an area as they prepare to enter a Covid-19 unit at Starr County Memorial Hospital in Rio Grande City, Texas, US. AP Photo

A staff wears a mask while taking orders at a small restaurant in Grand Lake, Colorado, US, amid the coronavirus pandemic. AP Photo

Anna and Ulf Crothers have their photo taken after marrying at the Victorian Marriage Registry in Melbourne, Australia, on the last day before weddings are banned in Melbourne for the next six weeks because of a new lockdown. AFP

A museum technician cleans the 'V&A Rotunda Chandelier' by US artist Dale Chihuly during a photocall at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum in London as the museum prepares to re-open to the public on August 6. AFP

Hindus offer prayers for a groundbreaking ceremony of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad headquarters in New Delhi, India. AP Photo

Check-in counters of Virgin Australia and Tiger Air are unattended at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia. Virgin Australia will cut about 3000 jobs as the airline struggles with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. AP Photo

Children wearing protective face masks queue during teaching and learning activities amid the coronavirus outbreak in Lebak, Banten Province, Indonesia. Reuters

People ride shared bicycles past the CCTV headquarters in the Central Business District in Beijing, China. Reuters

A woman wearing a face mask uses a portable fan around her neck to keep cool in the heat in Tokyo, Japan. AP Photo

Victor Hernandez shadowboxes while wearing a mask, in front of a US flag hanging on the wall of West Texas Knockout Boxing Club in Odessa, Texas, US. AP

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has urged the US government to not leave developing nations behind in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have only taken care of ourselves” in producing and procuring a vaccine, Mr Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Tuesday.

The billionaire philanthropist said he has encouraged congressional politicians to consider adding US$8 billion (Dh29.36bn) to the economic relief bill that will be dedicated to helping poor nations procure a vaccine.

“We’re trying to make sure we can end it not just in the rich countries,” he said.

In March 2015, Mr Gates gave a TEDTalk titled: "The next outbreak? We've not ready."

In it, he said that if anything were likely to kill millions of people in the next few decades, it would be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war.

Global cases passed 18.7 million on Wednesday, with 704,438 deaths and almost 11.9 million recoveries, Worldometers data showed.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged more than $250 million towards Covid-19 research.

Mr Gates said he has funded vaccine development efforts by pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

The 64 year old expects a vaccine will be developed and approved by the beginning of next year but said “the initial vaccine, in terms of its effectiveness against sickness and transmission, won’t be ideal and may not have a long duration”.

“Innovation in diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines will get us largely out of this by the end of 2021 … the true end comes when between natural infection and a vaccine we have this herd immunity,” he said.