Bill Gates: Australia, 7 Other Nations Did Better In COVID Control

A big part of Bill Gates' post-Microsoft life has been running a foundation to promote health and welfare in parts of the world that need it most. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was launched in 2000 and says it is committed to solving the world's inequities, Jeffrey Quiggle reported for TheStreet.

Photo Insert: Gates has even written a book about preventing the next pandemic.

"We work together with businesses, government, and nonprofits, and each partner plays a specific role in accelerating progress," the foundation's website says.

"Our mission is to create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life," it continues.

In remarks Jan. 23 at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, Gates spoke about the global response to the pandemic, talking about some specific countries. "I wouldn't say any country got it totally right," he said.

"Australia and about seven other countries did population-scale diagnostics early on, and had quarantine policies associated with that. That meant that, in that first year when there were no vaccines, hospitals could have gotten overloaded like they did in many countries. You kept the level of infection low."

Fighting disease throughout the world has been a big part of that mission, so when the foundation became aware of the emergence of Covid in January 2020, it sprang into action.

"In the years that followed, we supported governments in the Global South and other partners to develop vaccines and diagnostics, expand supply chains and delivery systems for drugs and diagnostics, and help get vaccines into arms -- all at an unprecedented pace," the foundation writes.

"We also advocated relentlessly for equity in the world’s response. That initial $5 million toward addressing COVID-19 became $100 million by February 5, 2020, and $250 million by April 15, 2020. All told, our foundation has committed more than $2 billion to address the pandemic," it concluded.

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