Can Bill Gates Vaccinate the World?

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavarro.

[1] This is a daily.

[2] Over the past few decades, the world's most powerful philanthropist became the most powerful private citizen in public health.

[3] Today, my colleagues, Megan Tooey and Nick Coolish, examine how Bill Gates is changing the way the world is vaccinated, and potentially the course of the pandemic.

[4] pandemic.

[5] It's Wednesday, March 3rd.

[6] So Megan and Nick, how did this reporting start for both of you?

[7] Well, I'm an investigative reporter who last year started doing reporting on the pandemic.

[8] And by the summer, I decided to turn my attention to the world of vaccines.

[9] And as I started digging, almost immediately, I started to hear the name Bill Gates over and, you know, and I started to hear the name Bill Gates over again.

[10] And it wasn't clear exactly what he was doing, but it was clear that he seemed to have his hands in everything vaccine related.

[11] And also there were these crazy conspiracy theories about him about how he was using the pandemic and vaccines to put microchips in people so that he could track them.

[12] Now, that's patently false, right?

[13] But it was clear that people didn't know what he was actually doing.

[14] And I write about philanthropy for the times.

[15] And, you know, in the world of philanthropy, there's no group as big or as important really as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

[16] And from my reporting on the philanthropy side, I kept hearing Gates, Gates, Gates.

[17] And pretty soon we realized there was a big piece to the pandemic story that wasn't being told.

[18] And maybe it's a story that we need to tell together.

[19] And so what did you find?

[20] Hello, I'm Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft.

[21] In this video, you're going to see the future.

[22] Windows.

[23] You know, the story of Bill Gates and vaccine development really started in the late 90s.

[24] In the next 10 years, computers may change the way you do just about everything, and no one will shape that change more than Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft.

[25] You know, at the time, he was known as the CEO of Microsoft.

[26] Bill Gates is about $200 million richer this morning.

[27] That's hard to believe.

[28] You know, the world's richest man. and the U .S. Justice Department asked a federal court today to fine Microsoft Corporation a record $1 million a day.

[29] The target of a giant antitrust case.

[30] Attorney General Reno says Microsoft, the 800 -pound gorilla of the computer software industry, has broken a 1995 agreement not to squeeze out its competition.

[31] Microsoft is telling PC manufacturers, if you want to use our operating system.

[32] You must also install our browser.

[33] Just think if somebody had a monopoly on hot dogs, would you want them to decide what kind of mustard to put on your hot dog?

[34] That's what this is all about.

[35] The government said that he had been abusing the monopoly power that his powerful software company wielded to the detriment of other technology companies.

[36] In one Microsoft computer game, the object is to build an empire by obliterating your rivals.

[37] Whether Bill Gates is too good at that in true life may turn into the biggest antitrust battle ever.

[38] It was the big case, it was the big thing of the moment, the U .S. government versus the world's richest man. At the time, I was actually a young reporter covering antitrust for the Wall Street Journal.

[39] The government repeatedly ran clips from a videotape deposition that showed him to be evasive and even arrogant.

[40] I have no idea what you're talking about when you say ask.

[41] He wasn't coming over very well.

[42] Do you recognize that this is a document produced from Microsoft's files?

[43] Do you not, sir?

[44] No. You don't?

[45] Well, how would I know that?

[46] He seemed like he didn't like being told what to do.

[47] They're jealous competitors.

[48] And in a competitive market, you know, one company does super well.

[49] And he and his company could do no wrong.

[50] And, of course, that case does not end well for Bill Gates.

[51] No. It certainly is not go directly to jail for Bill Gates, but a federal judge has stated it plainly, Microsoft is a monopoly.

[52] It was found that Microsoft was a monopoly and that Microsoft had abused its power as a monopoly to restrict competition.

[53] There is even a site on the web now for a group calling itself Spogi, the Society for Preventing Gates from Getting Everything.

[54] And it's around this time that Gates begins to get involved in vaccines.

[55] And why would Bill Gates, who is known really for just one thing at this point in his life, which is making massively successful computer software, end up leaping into the world of vaccines and public health?

[56] Well, a cynical take would be that he makes this pivot at a moment when he is suffering the biggest PR crisis of his entire life.

[57] I mean, the government is successfully coming after his company.

[58] he is being painted as a robber baron of the times and that he wants to do something that's going to change his image and public health and making the world a better, safer place was a surefire way to do that.

[59] In truth, our understanding is that he was also genuinely attracted and pulled into the world of public health.

[60] Bill and his wife, Melinda, had already started this foundation in which they were channeling some of the many, many dollars that they had made in building up Microsoft into charitable causes that they thought were worthwhile.

[61] And especially when he started to learn more about vaccines, he was seeing a vacuum, a vacuum that he thought he might be uniquely positioned to help fill.

[62] And what was that vacuum?

[63] Well, in the previous decades, the World Health Organization, the global public health agency, had made a lot of effort working with drug companies to help bring new vaccines into the market and to get them to poor countries to address infectious diseases like smallpox.

[64] But by the 90s, the WHO, the World Health Organization had kind of decided that they didn't really need to make this a top priority.

[65] And many Western drug companies had actually stopped producing vaccines because they had to determine that they were unprofitable.

[66] Yeah.

[67] And so you're Bill Gates and you're sitting there and you're like, there's a problem and it's a problem with developing technology and distributing it and helping companies make a profit.

[68] And he's like, wait a minute, I'm the richest guy in the world and I'm great at all of these things.

[69] I'm the man at this moment who can help with this issue.

[70] Okay.

[71] So a light bulb has gone off in his head.

[72] He's starting to think about vaccines.

[73] What happens next?

[74] Well, you know, there was this really amazing moment that happened in late 1998 where Bill and Melinda Gates had just given $100 million for vaccines for children, which that's a big number in any era, but it was even bigger then.

[75] It was just this stunning number.

[76] And all of these experts gather at Bill and Melinda Gates's $127 million lakeside mansion, which people have nicknamed Zanadu 2 .0, like in Citizen Kane.

[77] I've heard people jokingly refer to it as the lamb chop dinner.

[78] I know exactly what you're talking about.

[79] I couldn't tell you we had lamb chops.

[80] We actually talked to Melinda Gates about this, and we'd heard from other sources that they called it the lamb chop dinner because they're seated at this massive table, eating this apparently decades later, memorably great dinner of lamb chops.

[81] We had such a robust discussion about vaccines.

[82] We were literally at that point at the dinner where you're kind of wrapped it up and you, like, pulled your napkin.

[83] But it's that moment, right?

[84] It's that moment when the napkins are on the table, which kind of means we're getting ready to go.

[85] And then Bill just threw out the question.

[86] Bill Gates says, what if we gave more?

[87] What if we gave a lot more?

[88] And of course, you could see everybody put their napkins back on their lapids.

[89] Their heads lead in.

[90] And this whole new conversation starts amongst all these experts.

[91] And out of this conversation.

[92] We turned to each other after dinner was over and just said, we're going to get so much more to vaccines.

[93] Like, it was just natural.

[94] for both of us.

[95] Comes a $750 million investment.

[96] And then became Gavi after that.

[97] Wow.

[98] To start a new organization, a global vaccine nonprofit, that they're going to call Gavi.

[99] This investment helped to really revolutionize the world of vaccines and the vaccine market.

[100] And it did so within the capitalist system.

[101] What do you mean?

[102] Remember the vacuum that Gates discovered, this idea that, you know, making vaccines for poor countries, it's not always profitable.

[103] And the drug companies are like, we're not charities, right?

[104] Gates kind of solves that problem.

[105] By guaranteeing them, we're going to be your buyers.

[106] You're not just going to be dealing with, you know, Botswana here or Namibia there.

[107] We're going to guarantee you some volume.

[108] And for good measure, you're going to get to keep the intellectual property rights for your vaccines.

[109] Hmm.

[110] So Gates and Gave and the $750 million, dollars, it becomes a missing link in the economics of making vaccines for infectious diseases that largely affect poorer countries because he is stepping in and saying, I'm going to ensure that you, pharmaceutical companies, are actually going to make money by undertaking vaccine production.

[111] That's exactly right.

[112] I mean, he is creating this intermediary organization that ends up serving as a crucial link between the drug companies and the developing world.

[113] And along the way, he's forming some really powerful alliances.

[114] He starts to form really close relationships with the executives of these big drug companies.

[115] He starts having actually annual meetings where they all get together and discuss what the priorities should be in the upcoming years.

[116] And he's also going to world leaders, the leaders of, other wealthy countries and saying, you know, you should actually be investing in this new structure to help get vaccines around the world.

[117] And a lot of them are saying yes.

[118] And he's cultivating some serious, powerful relationships with those figures as well.

[119] And, you know, also here at home in the United States, talking to members of Congress on both sides of the aisles, presidents, congressional leaders.

[120] I spoke with Senator Mitch McConnell about their relationship.

[121] You know, Mitch McConnell is himself a polio survivor, and one of Bill Gates's biggest efforts has been trying to eradicate polio.

[122] And, you know, Mitch McConnell told me that Gates has immediate access to people on the Hill because of his fame, because of his reputation, because of what he's doing with his own money, and the way that he's inspiring other rich people to do similar things with theirs.

[123] Yeah, and alongside these political figures, he is also, you know, when did you first meet Bill Gates making strong relationships with scientists around the world.

[124] Okay, so...