https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... &utm_term=The $650 million the foundation has committed for treatments, vaccines, and other public health measures — $350 million in grants and $300 million from an investment fund that plows profits back into the work — is the biggest contribution from any independent foundation. It ranks second in private COVID-19 giving behind Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s $1 billion relief fund.
Bill Gates has also made the pandemic a personal cause. He’s been everywhere — on television, in medical journals, in online Q&As — speaking out with unusual vehemence about the bungled U.S. response and pushing for expanded testing and equitable distribution of vaccines.
The foundation’s health and development work rarely attracts much criticism — or even notice — in the U.S., because it’s almost exclusively based in the developing world. But in the politicized atmosphere of a pandemic that affects everyone, Gates and the foundation have become what one expert describes as the “voodoo doll” of conspiracy theories.
One false rumor claims that Gates plans to use a COVID-19 vaccine to inject people with tracking devices; another scenario casts him as part of a shadowy group that somehow orchestrated the pandemic and seeks to profit from it.
According to a tax statement, the foundation spent nearly $91 million in 2018 on conferences and travel expenses for staff and grant recipients. That’s more than most U.S. foundations give away in a year.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Climate-and-COVID-19COVID-19 is awful. Climate change could be worse.
But there are lessons from the current crisis that should guide our response to the next one.
By Bill Gates| August 04, 2020 8 minute read
