COVID-19 Records

Attachment

Gates Package, p.1013 · gates:exh:00423

Page text: p.1013 · original PDF

Date
(unknown precision)
Type
attachment · document
Topics
WHO and international investigation
Even if the cost is low, some countries will need donations to be able to get enough for all their people. For twenty years, low- and middle-income countries have been getting help from a nonprofit called the Global Fund to buy medicines and other tools to fight HIV, TB, and malaria. The Global Fund is now the world's largest financer of these efforts, reaching more than 100 countries, and in 2020 it expanded its purview to include COVID supplies. A newer approach that could inform our efforts is the partnership known as the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. Led by the WHO and other groups, its goal is to herd all the cats involved in global health, making sure that developing countries are consulted--and their needs considered--when new COVID drugs are developed and delivered. Of course, cost isn't the only hurdle we'll need to overcome. Even once we have a cheap treatment, it may be hard to get it to the patients who need it. And we'll need to make sure they get the right treatment at the right time. (Remember, for example, that mAbs and antibodies need to be given shortly after symptoms start, while a steroid like dexamethasone is only appropriate later in the disease, when someone is severely ill.) Even then, something as seemingly basic as the packaging of the medicine might make people reluctant to take it. Some HIV drugs also help prevent people from getting infected in the first place--the approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis--but many patients don't want to take an AIDS medicine out of fear that others will think they're HIV-positive. That problem can be solved, but not without some effort, because you can't just start making pills that look different. You have to test every element, including the shape, size, and even the color of the pill. ***