The Times Magazine 17of the view of pandemic vaccines spills over
to, say, the measles vaccine in developing
countries, where measles still kills 140,
kids a year, that’s going to be tragic.”
Some people’s refusal to wear masks also
baffles him. “The degree to which masks block
transmission and infection is really incredible.
The most risky thing I did during the whole
pandemic was when I went to the Cop
conference in Glasgow when the infection rate
was quite high. The mask compliance was very
good when we were out on the street but as
soon as you went into the cocktail parties,
everybody was drinking with no masks. It was
insane. At least I was triple vaxed.”
He has never caught Covid. Part of him
must feel intrigued by the idea of finally
meeting his opponent. “I’m down to testing,
like, twice a week now and if I feel poorly.
My two sisters and their husbands didn’t
get it and Melinda and none of my three
kids got it either. And at least one of them
wasn’t supercareful.”
Did he break any rules, have any raves,
suitcases of wine, birthday cakes with
colleagues? “I didn’t get the vaccine until it
was my turn. I’m learning how to give my own
parties now, but I didn’t have them these past
couple of years. I think most people stuck
to their bubbles.” Partygate perplexes him.
“I don’t know the facts particularly well. I do
know that if something appears hypocritical,
it has a certain resonance for the people
who are making sacrifices at that time. So
I’d advise them not to have any more parties
during pandemics. But I’m not the scold.”
He does however feel guilty that he had
a far easier pandemic than most of the world.
“I had perfect internet, large houses, a private
plane with zero risk of infection. I was able to
see my kids. Other people suffered way more,
particularly the poor.”
On the day America first shut down more
than two years ago, he remembers leaving the
Foundation offices thinking all their projects
were in jeopardy now that staff had gone
home. “Weirdly, it was my first love that
proved me wrong. They all just got on their
computers and we were still 90 per cent as
productive. We wrote $2 billion of pandemic-
related cheques. And there’s not a single one
where I would go, ‘If you hadn’t been in your
pyjamas you would have known better than to
write that cheque.’ ”
Microsoft must have done very well.
“Microsoft is, like, I don’t know, 10 per cent or
12 per cent of my wealth. But stocks in general
did well, so yes, it meant we could give away a
record amount of money. With Warren Buffett
[the investor and Gates’s bridge partner],
I would talk about how we could get all
philanthropists to up their rate of giving, in
particular the tech sector because digitisation
got a huge boost alongside online shopping.”Gates won’t say how much money he made
during the pandemic. “In my case you have
to adjust for the fact that I was married and
now I’m divorced, but I’m still very well off
whereas most people struggled and many
countries’ economies have tanked.”
He thinks the young as well as the elderly
paid too high a price during the pandemic. In
his book he suggests that schools should be
kept open wherever possible in the event of
another outbreak. “In the inner cities, in the
US you have up to two years of learning loss- that’s just like a superdramatic thing. A lot
of care homes were turned into prisons.”
Good leadership is his other crucial
requirement in a pandemic. Does Gates think
we had the right leaders? He pauses for a long
time. He dislikes personal attacks and politics
even though it’s clear he had little time for
presidents Trump, Putin or Xi. “Well, we’ve
lost a lot of good leaders. And it’s hard to be
a leader. The world has relied on the US in
many areas, including in global health. And
so to have a pandemic where the global health
infrastructure was stressed and the US in the
middle of it quit the WHO [World Health
Organisation] and claimed that it’s Chinese-
infiltrated, which is definitely not true, that
was tricky, because who fills that vacuum? The
US wasn’t very present. There were too few
good leaders, too few people to listen to and
a lot of chaotic messaging.”
As the world emerges from this pandemic
and with a war raging on the edge of Europe,
it feels as though we are entering a new era of
fragility and uncertainty. Is he still an optimist
or does he feel humanity is sliding backwards?
“I think it’s a shame and under most objective
criteria it’s false and sad that people now feel
so worried and nervous about their future.
Even the pandemic has produced some huge
leaps in scientific endeavour and sped up the
arrival of vaccines for other illnesses.”
But people and politics seem to have
become more polarised and the culture wars
have become toxic. “Well, the positive way to
look at it is to say that, you know, we’re doing
better with women and gay people’s rights,
and now we’re uncomfortable with transgender
and we’ll get better at that... I think that people
being relaxed about gay people is dramatically
better than when I was young. Trans people
raise complex issues about treatment, sports
and prisons but I’m not an expert on that;
I don’t have the data. My younger daughter
updates me on the terminology and behaviour.
Like in her class kids can be gay, transgender,
whatever they want.”
What annoys him is the way he feels
the culture wars have become a distraction.
“Politicians are elected to improve schools, the
healthcare system, the justice system. So when
you get, ‘Let’s have a “bathroom bill”,’ do you
really want to focus on that as a priority? Are
you mostly just picking some edge issue or
slogan to try to rile people? Why aren’t you
talking about the quality of math classes?
I worry that our politicians aren’t spending
enough time trying to ensure that our systems
run smoothly. I hope they save a little time
while they’re doing the culture wars to think
about these other things, which is what I think
about all the time.”
Does anything stop him from sleeping
now? “Well, I hope we never have to deal with
bioterrorism and an intentionally caused virus.
But we are making progress in other areas like
a cure for HIV. We cut childhood mortality in
half from 1990 to 2020 and we have a chance
of cutting it in half again by 2040. We are
making huge progress on understanding the
microbiome – for the rich world that means
solving overnutrition and for the developing
world malnutrition, so that’s pretty exciting.
Then throw in some Alzheimer’s prevention.
So, despite all the polarisation and imperfect
leadership that we have, I still feel very strongly
that the human condition is improving.”
Is he as positive on a personal level? In a
frank interview last month with CBS, Melinda
said she was only just beginning to heal. Does
he feel he’s moved on at all? “Oh yeah, this
year is very different.” He’s not known as a
very emotional person, I say. Melinda has
always been the chatty, emotive one. “I don’t
know. I’m not visibly emotional. Maybe
somewhere deep inside I am.”
He can be romantic. He once said that
when the couple walked through the woods
in Seattle, he would still always go first to
check the way because “Melinda doesn’t
like cobwebs”. And another time he told
me he had cried while reading A Gentleman
in Moscow with Melinda. “And books like The
Heart [by Maylis de Kerangal], I mean, thatAntivaxers rally in London, January 2022‘YES, I WORK IN THE
WORLD OF VACCINES.
BUT TO CLAIM THAT
I CONTROL PEOPLE’S
BODIES IS BIZARRE’
SHUTTERSTOCK