By Aaron Miller-
Philanthropist Bill Gates, have announced an injection of $125m funding to discover new attempts to expand testing for the novel coronavirus in their local areas in a bid to tackle the virus. The billionaire entrepreneur known for his superb hearts in solving the world’s challenging problems, are determined to give their best in the fight against the killer disease causing illness and death today.
The contribution is being made through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a private foundation started in 2000 by the husband and wife that has become one of the largest in the world. According to its president Trevor Mundel, the funds will be given to 12 big pharmaceutical companies as well as small biotech entities who are actively seeking ways to develop a vaccine for the Coronavirus.
The absence of antiviral medicine to specifically remedy the coronavirus has been the drive behind the initiative to partner with private and philanthropic enterprises to lower the financial risk and technical barriers for biotech and pharmaceutical companies developing antivirals for COVID-19
With over 700 coronavirus cases in the United States and at least 26 deaths as concern rises among Americans. Zuckerberg’s philanthropy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and its affiliated CZI Biohub, on Tuesday announced plans to purchase two clinical diagnostic machines to quadruple the ability for testing and diagnosing possible cases of the disease in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The region has been dogged by a testing bottleneck that makes it difficult to ascertain how much the virus has spread. CZI said its machines would be in place likely by next week.Another region that is home to an outbreak, the Seattle area, is also turning to its own local billionaire philanthropists.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will to fund its own testing kits that Seattleites can use at home and send in for analysis. Charitable commitments from philanthropies like that of the Gates Foundation and CZI exist against a backdrop of criticisms that pecuniary interventions by private philanthropists are used as a tool to manipulate policy and that it is the role of government, not billionaires, to address our common problems.
Last month the philanthropic foundation Gate runs with his wife Melinda added climate and gender equality to its top priorities.
.