Bill Gates says COVID vaccine will aid growth, expects 6 jabs by spring 2021

'But we are not going to be as far along by 2030 as we would have been without the pandemic,' Gates has cautioned.

Moneycontrol News

December 08, 2020 / 13:41 IST

Bill Gates (Image: Reuters)

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said he is optimistic that growth will return once a COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, which he expects will be available on a broad basis by the spring of 2021.

Speaking virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival, Gates said he expected six COVID-19 vaccines to be approved and ready for distribution by the spring of 2021, as efforts to combat the spread of the deadly virus gains pace.

According to him, vaccine candidates from Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax were likely to be authorised in the coming months joining the selectively approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Gates did not reveal the sixth vaccine source.

Gates said he had seen great "improvements" in health systems across the world but asserted that the damage done by the pandemic could have thrown a wrench in the growth trajectory.

"Once we get the vaccines out on a broad basis then I am optimistic that we will resume growth that we had before including things like great improvements in the health system," Gates said.

But we are not going to be as far along by 2030 as we would have been without the pandemic.

Gates, who has been one of the biggest advocates of global health developments including vaccination, added that regulators would need to "make sure we (distribute) in a somewhat equitable way ... not how rich you determine whether you get access."

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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