For Millennials. By Millennials.
Even though Bill Gates is not a doctor, his experience and philanthropy make him qualified to talk about the Coronavirus. After all, he predicted a pandemic years before it even happened. Now, the Microsoft co-founder has mentioned three effective Coronavirus drugs that “could cut the death rate dramatically”.
Bill Gates gives three effective Coronavirus drugs
Gates has been at the forefront of news and policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has always emphasized the importance of acting as quickly as possible to protect the world from COVID-19. He has invested in research related to the vaccine too. In the process, he did not shy away from criticizing Trump as well.
Now, in a new interview with Business Insider, he explained that there are three types of drugs that can make a difference before we have a vaccine for the Coronavirus. These three drugs can help in controlling the death rate massively. And it’s especially useful, since the first vaccine, whenever it comes, will not be 100& effective. Bill Gates said:
“The very first vaccine won’t be like a lot of vaccines, where it’s a 100% transmission-blocking, and 100% avoids the person who gets the vaccine getting sick… It’s much easier to test a therapeutic than it is a vaccine.”
The drugs that Bill Gates mentioned are familiar to everyone who has been following COVID-19 updates closely. They were antivirals, corticosteroids, and monoclonal antibodies.
Antivirals
Gates mentioned that Remidivisir is a good and new antiviral that has shown potency against COVID-19. It has helped in recovering patients with mild to moderate symptoms. Moreover, recent studies showed that this drug reduces the risk of death by 62%. But, it isn’t readily available. For that, Bill Gates suggested that this drug should be made readily available to the public.
Corticosteroids
The other effective Coronavirus drug that Bill Gates mentioned is corticosteroids, which are most similar to our body’s hormone cortisol. Dexamethasone is the one in particular that Gates is excited about. Some research has suggested that this drug reduces the risk of death in some critically ill patients.
Monoclonal antibodies
These drugs are cloned from the most potent natural protective antibodies developed among the people who had the Coronavirus. Bill Gates has a few of them in mind, saying:
“There’s three or four, including Regeneron, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and others, that we’ll have data on before the end of the year. That, in combination with the antivirals, could cut the death rate quite dramatically, which would be a very big deal.”
These are the effective Coronavirus drugs that Bill Gates was talking about. Gates believes that therapeutics and treatments should be given more attention. This is because they can yield results “within a few months”. Again, there’s no guarantee that there’ll ever be a 100% effective Coronavirus vaccine. That is why COVID-19 could very well become endemic, which could live on with us forever. That is why he believes treatments should be given as much attention as the cure to Coronavirus itself, saying:
“At least some of those are likely to work before the end of the year. We’re trying to make sure that the ease of giving them, and the cost, and the availability, takes care of the entire world.”
You can read more about the interview here.
