Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is aiding the effort to fight the coronavirus. According to Gates, the vaccine could be just nine months away.
“Top US Health Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has said he thinks it’ll take around 18 months to develop a coronavirus vaccine. I agree with him, though it could be as little as 9 months or as long as two years,” Gates said in a blog post, referring to the top US infectious disease official.
In the post, Gates said even if it takes 18 months, it would still be a record time for scientists to come up with a new vaccine, adding that about 10 of the 115 current COVID-19 vaccine candidates look promising.
“I am particularly excited by two new approaches that some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines. It might be a bit hard to see right now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he wrote.
Gates has often been viewed as a voice of reason ever since the coronavirus outbreak swooped the world. He previously called for a nationwide shutdown in the US and also suggested that the death toll from the pandemic could be much less than 100,000-240,000 deaths predicted by President Donald Trump.
As of May 1, the US had at least 1,095,210 confirmed cases and more than 63,861 deaths. Globally, there are more than 3.3 million cases and 234,123 deaths.
