The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed an additional $50 million in funding for the GAVI vaccine alliance to address issues related to COVID-19, focusing on efforts to distribute future vaccines for the disease in lower-income countries.
The Seattle-based foundation made the announcement as part of the Coronavirus Global Response Summit, bringing its total COVID-19 funding to more than $300 million.
“In order to beat COVID-19, the world needs more than great science. It needs great humanity, the commitment to help people beat this virus no matter where they live,” said Melinda Gates, the Gates Foundation co-chair, in a statement Monday morning. “This effort will help us do that. With the collective resources and brainpower pledged today, we’ll finally be able to attack this virus in the way it is attacking us – globally.”
The Gates Foundation said previously that it will focus its COVID-19 funding on four areas: 1) accelerating testing and detection of the virus; 2) rolling out and testing new protections from the disease in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; 3) boosting food assistance and social payment systems in low- and middle-income countries; and 4) supporting the development of new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
The foundation’s earlier COVID-19 funding initiatives include a $50 million contribution to a $125 million COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator along with Wellcome and Mastercard. The Gates Foundation also contributed $5 million to the Seattle area’s response to COVID-19.
PREVIOUSLY: Gates Foundation’s CEO worries about pandemic politics — and says ‘we have nothing to hide’
