Gates Package — page 899

Ten minutes after Trevor's mail came through, I told Melinda I thought we should approve it; she agreed and replied to Trevor: "We are approving $5M [i.e., $5 million] today and realize there may be an additional amount needed in the future. Glad the team has jumped on top of this so quickly. It is very concerning." As we both suspected, there were definitely additional amounts needed, as became clear at the Valentine's Day dinner and many other meetings. The foundation has committed $1.8 billion to different aspects of fighting COVID, including slowing its spread, developing vaccines and treatments, and helping make sure that these lifesaving tools reach people in poor countries. Since the pandemic began, I've had the chance to work with and learn from countless health experts at the foundation and outside it. One deserves special mention. In March 2020, I had my first call with Anthony Fauci, the head of the infectious diseases division of the National Institutes of Health. I'm lucky to have known Tony for years (long before he was on the cover of pop-culture magazines), and I wanted to hear what he was thinking about all this--especially the potential for various vaccines and treatments that were being developed. Our foundation was backing many of them, and I wanted to make sure our agenda for developing and deploying innovations was aligned with his. Also, I wanted to understand what he was saying publicly so I could help by giving consistent advice about things like social distancing and wearing masks. We had a productive first call, and Tony and I would check in monthly for the rest of the year, discussing the progress on different treatments and vaccines and strategizing about how work done in the United States could benefit the rest of the world. We even did a few interviews together. It was an honor to sit next to him (virtually, of course).