As the coronavirus continues to spread, many people are doing whatever they can to help — from applauding healthcare professionals on the front lines of the pandemic to raising money for various charities and causes.
Back in February, Bill and Melinda Gates announced that their foundation would contribute $100 million to fighting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus — and on Thursday, Gates spoke to The Daily Show's Trevor Noah to explain how the money can help.
"If we get the right testing capacity you can change by literally millions the number who are infected, and governments will eventually come up with lots of money for these things," says Gates in the Daily Show clip above. "But they don't know where to direct it, they can't move as quickly, and so because our foundation has such deep expertise in infectious diseases – we've thought about the epidemic, we did fund some things to be more prepared, like a vaccine effort – our early money can accelerate things."
Gates goes on to explain that they're funding factories for seven of the most promising vaccine constructs, even though they're likely to just pick two in the end, so that time isn't wasted.
"We'll have a lot of unusual measures until we get the world vaccinated," Gates concludes. "You know, seven billion people, that's a tall order — but it is where we need to get to, despite a lot of things between now and then, to minimise the damage."
Topics Health The Daily Show Trevor Noah COVID-19
