Bill Gates, in a recent interview with the Financial Times, said that over the last few weeks, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s focus has shifted ‘almost entirely’ to working on addressing the challenges thrown by Covid-19.
Gates believes that the economic impact of the Coronavirus could be more deadly than expected if the challenge is not faced head-on.
According to Gates, since the outbreak was recognized by the government, his foundation’s sole emphasis has been to come up with a solution for the deadliest pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918. Bill Gates had earlier anticipated the outbreak in one of his Ted Talks few years back, not necessarily in the same manner. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has played a pivotal role in tackling Polio and HIV globally. However, since the Covid-19 took over the world, the foundation has been focusing only on tackling the novel coronavirus, thereby impacting the ongoing efforts to control other deadly diseases.
In the interview, Gates said that the impact of Covid-19 will be on every aspect of human life and it is better to temporarily shift the focus on handling the ongoing pandemic better so that the existing systems to control other diseases are not impacted. He said that the weaker economies will have challenging times ahead and addressing the current situation should be everyone’s priority.
