Billionaire tech wizard and vaccine enthusiast Bill Gates says we are still a long way from returning back to normal.
The Microsoft founder and global philanthropist says that it will be at least summer 2022 before life opens back up and we go back to something like how life was before the outbreak of COVID-19.
The Gates Foundation: Putting Big Money Into Vaccines
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Gates runs with his wife Melinda, recently announced it will be spending another $250 million in order to back “the research, development, and equitable delivery of lifesaving tools” for fighting the coronavirus. In total the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has given around $1.75 billion to fighting the ongoing pandemic.
Gates says he is optimistic about the vaccines that are now beginning to be rolled out – many of which have very serious potential side effects – but he says that life might not get back to normal until 2022 because of how the vaccines will be distributed..
“By the summer of 2021, the rich countries will have more vaccine coverage than other countries,” Gates said, adding that “the rich countries will be going mostly back to normal. But I still think because the virus will be in the world, we still will be somewhat conservative about large public events, we will still have some mask-wearing.”
Gates is famous for having predicted a serious global virus a year before it happened, and he says serious measures must continue to be taken.
“We really need to get this virus eliminated, almost everywhere or else we have seen even in countries that have done a super good job — like Australia or Singapore or Hong Kong or South Korea — they always run a risk of reinfection,” Gates said, adding that “they won’t be totally back to normal but sometime in the first half of 2022, I do think we will be able to say that we’re back to normal.”
General public not gonna get access to the vaccine til mid summer. Maybe bill gates was right about that 2022 “normal” prediction
— Otis Perry (@Premium_Dell) December 8, 2020
Gates: The Next Five Months Are Going to be ‘Bleak’
In comments during a second interview, Gates said that the coming “four or fives months will be quite bleak” for the US especially as colder winter weather increases the spread of the virus.
Distrust of Gates has been high among many Americans, especially conservatives. The mainstream media has frequently tried to debunk theories that Bill Gates knew about the virus beforehand or had plans to profit from it and control it in various ways.
A YouGov poll done this spring found that 44 percent of Republicans believed Bill Gates could use a COVID-19 vaccine to implant nanotechnology tracking chips into them, and other theories that the vaccine is intended to manipulate human DNA or intentionally sterilize women are currently spreading widely.
In terms of sterilization rumors, despite official denials from many mainstream media outlets, the actual information on the legally-required vaccine pamphlets indicates that the vaccine is “not recommended” for those who are pregnant and admits it has had sterility and other problematic effects on animals during testing.
I’m sorry but this is too scary. Risking infertility is not something I’m willing to do for a Covid vaccine.. pic.twitter.com/JdiSUBvgvd
— hol 🦒 (@hgbxo) December 8, 2020
Efforts to increase public trust of the COVID-19 vaccine include a plan for former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush to take the vaccine on live TV. Obama noted that “if Fauci tells me this is safe … I’m going to take it,” referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci who has helped lead the federal response to the pandemic.
As for Gates, despite all his optimism and support of vaccines, he has also said that one of the biggest problems remains trying to get people to trust health officials and take the vaccines.
“You know, here in the US, we should already be thinking about which voices will help reduce the hesitancy. And so we can get a level of vaccination that really has a chance of stopping (it).”
