business backgrounder | innovation
“That we are running
30,000-person trials…
is both a compliment
and a challenge.”
— Dr. Larry Corey of The
Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center in Seattle.
“To beat the COVID-19
pandemic, the world needs
more than breakthrough
science. It needs breakthrough
generosity…When
COVID-19 vaccines are
ready, this funding and
global coordination will
ensure that people all over
the world will be able to
access them.”
— Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation
formed by Dr. Tony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to
manage multiple, large-scale clinical trials of coronavirus vaccines, the center reports.
“That we are running 30,000-person trials…is both a compliment and a challenge,”
Corey said in an interview with the center’s communications staff. “What’s wonderful
is that we now have 72 clinical trial sites in this combined effort with our partners, and
we’ve worked together. We know each other. These are the most prominent infectious
disease people. They’ve all been involved in the COVID epidemic in their own right. You
know, it’s the strength of that mass of expertise that gives me the optimism to say that
we’re going to do well.”
This is just the kind of historic challenge one of Washington’s most successful
employers has predicted for many years. But Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is doing
more than warning governments through TED Talks; he’s putting resources behind
practical solutions.
In June, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.6 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine
Alliance, plus an additional $100 million specifically to expand access to future COVID-19
vaccines in lower-income countries.
“To beat the COVID-19 pandemic, the world needs more than breakthrough science.
It needs breakthrough generosity,” Gates said in a statement. “When COVID-19 vaccines
are ready, this funding and global coordination will ensure that people all over the world
will be able to access them.”
The pandemic is far from over. Many Washingtonians are facing extraordinary health
and economic challenges now, and forecasting the future is difficult, at best.
But here’s one thing we can count on: Washington’s best minds are working hard to
contain the virus and help us emerge from the pandemic a stronger state, and nation.
“It is possible to control the spread of the virus,” Basu said, “if we are smart about our
actions and strategically move to open the economy.”
30 association of washington business