American business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates calls out Pakistan as a COVID-19 success story, comparing it to Europe on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria.
Gates endorsed Pakistan’s COVID-19 policies and said India by contrast, doesn’t look great, and compared it to South America in terms of it’s coronavirus growth.
Today on CNN, @BillGates shared his views about COVID-19 response and stats of Pakistan & India. Pakistan’s numbers are coming down while India’s numbers are going up. This is the difference between PM Imran Khan (a visionary leader) & @narendramodi (politician who preaches hate) pic.twitter.com/HQrZZnBzON
— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 9, 2020
PTI’s official twitter page tweeted ‘Today on CNN, @BillGates shared his views about COVID-19 response and stats of Pakistan & India. Pakistan’s numbers are coming down while India’s numbers are going up. This is the difference between PM Imran Khan (a visionary leader) & @narendramodi (politician who preaches hate)’
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Bill Gates lauds Imran Khan’s efforts
Earlier in a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Bill Gates lauded Pakistan’s efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak.
PM Imran shared how Pakistan is making all-out efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic with a robust and coordinated response.
The pair also discussed the latest developments surrounding the country’s response to the pandemic.
The Prime Minister emphasised that Pakistan is facing a dual challenge of overcoming the pandemic and saving people, particularly the most vulnerable segments of the society, from hunger due to the lockdown.
1) Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI spoke to @BillGates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on 28 April 2020, to discuss the latest developments surrounding the COVID-19 response.
#PMImranKhan #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/sgG6ZS396Y— Prime Minister's Office (@PakPMO) April 29, 2020
Bill Gates on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria
On CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria, Bill Gates shared his views about COVID19 global response and infection numbers. In his discussion, Pakistan and India’s numbers and cases were also brought up. Gates said the condition in Pakistan has improved like Europe & numbers are going down. But our neighbours India are showing growth in infection like South America.
Bill Gates said it’s “mind-blowing” that the US government hasn’t improved Covid-19 testing that he described as slow and lacking fair access.
“You’re paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless test results of any country in the world,” Gates said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday. “No other country has this testing insanity.”
“A variety of early missteps by the US and then the political atmosphere meant that we didn’t get our testing going,” he said.
Gates cited long lines at commercial labs and delays in obtaining test results, meaning that “you pay as much for the late result as the timely result.” Meanwhile, “very wealthy people have access to these quick-turnaround tests,” he said.
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Bill Gates: US only country to have coronavirus "testing insanity" https://t.co/uJK5vINA2M pic.twitter.com/9dk2eQNjpm
— The Hill (@thehill) August 9, 2020
Gates has funded vaccine development efforts
Gates reiterated that he expects the US to largely get through the pandemic by the end of next year as therapeutics and a vaccine become available.
In a Bloomberg interview last week Gates said he’s funded vaccine development efforts by AstraZeneca Plc, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged more than $350 million toward Covid-19 research. Much of that has gone toward funding research and manufacturing capacity that will help a vaccine be distributed globally.
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