Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda say they will donate 10 billion dollars over the next decade to develop and deliver vaccines for children in the developing world.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Mr Gates said increasing immunisation coverage in developing countries to 90 percent should prevent the deaths of 7.6 million children under five between 2010 and 2019. He warned against the risk of governments diverting foreign funding for health towards climate change. He called on the international community and the private sector to donate money too. Ranked as one of the world's richest people, over past 10 years Mr Gates has used his charity to spend 4.5 billion dollars to develop vaccines for poor countries.
Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Photo: Flickr/World Economic Forum)
(Photo: Flickr/World Economic Forum)
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Vera, medicines cost money. At least he is doing what the UN and the recipent countries should be doing for the poor. Look at India and the millions of people who are poor and the country builds nuclear subs which cost a couple of billion dollars. They didn't need subs, they needed to protect their citizens from starvation and diseases. If protection from their neighbours was their justification for their subs, they could have have built smaller weapons with the same fire power as a sub. The money spent could have fed the nation of India for years and treated the sick with dignity and respect. No, Gates is doing right!
Oh, boy! The pharma industry must be absolutely ecstatic and rubbing their grubby hands. And now we can expect more 'pandemics' around the world?
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