The novel coronavirus that began in Wuhan, China is still spreading across the globe. Agencies across the world are collaborating to help stop the virus, and at the head of the pack is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pledged up to $100 million in aid.
CNN Business reports that the funds will be directed towards government and non-government agencies in an effort to improve detection and treatment for the disease—including vaccine development.
“The release of fast and flexible funding is intended to help multilateral organizations and national public health authorities rapidly scale up their virus detection capabilities and implement disease modeling analytics,” the Foundation said in a statement.
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975 and is the world’s second-richest person. He and his wife Melinda have been donating to improve public health for years. In 2009, they gave $33 million to help with a tuberculosis outbreak in China. In 2010, they committed $10 billion toward vaccine research.
Other wealthy business leaders have pledged millions to provide aid during the coronavirus outbreak, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma ($14.4 million) and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun ($1.8 million). With such a tremendous outpouring of aid, there’s no doubt that given the opportunity, people can and will help each other voluntarily.
Bill Gates is horrible! There is something nefarious about him, his wife, and his actions through his foundation.