Bill Gates, entrepreneur, billionaire and philanthropist, had words of praise for the omicron variant: It had spread faster than the vaccines against Covid-19. As a result, Omikron has contributed a lot to natural immunity.
At the recent Munich Security Conference, Gates described Omicron as “a kind of vaccine”. The variant produces both B-cell and T-cell immunity. And it’s getting out to people faster than vaccines made by pharma, said the Microsoft co-founder.
This means that the risk of a serious illness, which is mainly found in the elderly, obesity or diabetes, has been drastically reduced by Omikron.
At the same time, Gates criticized health politicians who, like the WHO, are aiming for a vaccination rate of 70 percent worldwide by the middle of the year because they believe this will prevent future Covid 19 waves. “We’ll never reach that 70 percent,” Gates said. “We live in a world where some countries can spend $12,000 per person per year on medicines, while others spend as little as $200.”
In May, Gates wants to bring his ideas for fighting the pandemic to the public: in a new book.
And Gates wouldn’t be Gates if he didn’t rave about innovation. In the future, needles will probably no longer be used, but rather micro-plasters and inhalations to block the infection. Because actually you need “secretory antibodies in the nose. And we’ve never done that well.” That’s partly why the vaccine doesn’t block the infection.
On the one hand, Gates spreads optimism: “If we come up with an infection blocker, one could even think about eradicating it.” And then, on the other hand, to be pessimistic: “But we’re still a long way from that.”
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