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Bill Gateshas tested positive forCOVID-19.
On Tuesday, the 66-year-oldphilanthropistannounced his diagnosis in a series oftweets, explaining that he received positive results despite being vaccinated and boosted.
The Microsoft founder added that theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation— a nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty, disease and inequity around the world — planned to meet for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but he would be participating virtually due to illness.
“The Gates Foundation is coming together today for the first time in two years, and I am lucky to be on [Microsoft] Teams to see everyone and thank them for their hard work,” he shared.
“We will continue working with partners and do all we can to ensure none of us have to deal with a pandemic again,” he added.
Gateshas committed at least $1.75 billion to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic which includes support for vaccines, diagnostics and treatments, according toReuters.
He also said COVID has spread through enough of the population that the “risks are dramatically reduced because of that exposure” during aCNBC interviewviaThe Hillat Germany’s Munich Security Conference in February.
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“The chance of severe disease, which is mainly associated with being elderly and having obesity or diabetes, those risks are now dramatically reduced because of that infection exposure,” he explained.
However, Gates warned of the risk of another pandemic in the future during the interview.
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“There’s a lot of diseases out there,” he said. “We’ll have another pandemic. It will be another pathogen next time.”
He added there are lessons to be learned from COVID vaccine distribution for the next potential pandemic.
“One is to make sure the limited supply [of a vaccine] is allocated in a more rational way,” he said. “The second is to just have so much capacity that you can supply all of mankind with two doses in a very short period of time.”
As information about thecoronavirus pandemicrapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from theCDC,WHOandlocal public health departments.
source: people.com
