Billionaire Bill Gates called for the provision of medicines to treat Covid-19 disease and vaccines to prevent it for countries and individuals most in need, not to pay the "highest price".
"If we let drugs and vaccines go to those who pay the highest price, not to the people and places most in need of them ... we will have a longer-term pandemic," Microsoft's founder, known for his charitable activity, said in a video posted today Saturday during a virtual conference on Covid-19 organized by the International AIDS Association. And more unfair and deadly ».
"We need leaders who make these tough decisions of distribution based on fairness and equity, and not only based on factors driven by the market," he added.
The European Commission and the World Health Organization have warned of the unwanted competition in the race to find drugs that are essential to saving lives and ending the economic chaos caused by the virus, at a time when officials in Washington indicated that they would seek to prioritize access to medicines and vaccines for US residents.
"One of the best lessons we have learned from fighting HIV and AIDS is the importance of building a large and fair global distribution system to deliver medicines to all," Gates said.