Bill Gates: Denigrating Dr. Fauci “Probably Isn’t the Best Approach”

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, tech billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates said the United States’ coronavirus response is a “communications exercise” and the U.S. “doesn’t get a very high grade.”

Gates said that if he were president, he would change the current administration’s approach to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost expert on the coronavirus.

“Some days he’s allowed to tell the truth; some days he doesn’t get contradicted by his leadership,” Gates said.

“Trying to denigrate Dr. Fauci probably isn’t the best approach,” Gates continued. “You want the experts to get the air time. Let them talk about what drug trials have worked [and] which ones haven’t — don’t mislead people on those things. This is a communications exercise. So far, the U.S. doesn’t get a very high grade.”

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This failure to communicate could mean that seeking out therapies or willingness to use the vaccine will make this disease last longer,”  he observed.

Gates, who has been the subject of conspiracy theory alleging he is seeking to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine in order to plant tracking devices in billions of recipients, noted, “The two most-attacked people in this phase have been myself and Dr. Fauci. And Dr. Fauci is just telling us the truth.”

Gates says he speaks with Dr. Fauci regularly to discuss how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institute of Health “are funding both the first wave of vaccines and then a second wave of vaccines.”

Dr. Fauci is testifying today as part of the House’s Coronavirus Crisis Hearing. Earlier, he said he doesn’t think it’s a dream to say that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready by the end of the year or early 2021.

“I believe it will occur,” he told Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). “I know to some people this seems like it is so fast that there might be compromising of safety and scientific integrity, and I can tell you that is absolutely not the case. The rapidity with which we’re doing it is as a result of very different technologies.”

He added: “As I’ve said often and I’ll repeat it for the record now: There’s never a guarantee that you’re going to get a safe and effective vaccine, but from everything we’ve seen now, in the animal data, as well as the early human data, we feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year and as we go into 2021. So I don’t think it’s dreaming, Congresswoman. I believe is the reality, and we’ve shown to be a reality.”

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.