Suddenly, Bill Gates isn’t so sure the FDA can be trusted with a COVID-19 vaccine
09/17/2020 / By Cassie B.
Can the FDA be trusted when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine?
Many Americans have their doubts, and one high-profile voice expressing concern is Bill Gates. And if the Microsoft co-founder and passionate vaccine advocate is concerned, you know it must be really bad.
Of course, his concerns are probably coming from a different place than many of us. After all, he wants to see the vaccine administered to everyone on the planet, making statements about the Big Pharma companies developing the vaccine such as: “These companies are very professional and the benefits of the vaccine here are very dramatic. Thank goodness that we have this private-sector expertise that we want to shape into a global public good that gets to everybody on the planet.”
There’s also the fact that he has reportedly been funding the use of a special dye with nanocrystal quantum dots to be placed into the vaccines that emit near-infrared light that can be detected using smartphones to signify that a person has been vaccinated. It’s pretty clear we can’t trust Gates, either.
Gates said the FDA has lost credibility in his mind in recent years. In particular, he cited recent comments made by FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who has been accused of exaggerating a Mayo Clinic study’s findings on the benefits of convalescent blood plasma as a coronavirus treatment.
“We saw with the completely bungled plasma statements that when you start pressuring people to say optimistic things, they go completely off the rails. The FDA lost a lot of credibility there,” he said.
Of course, he failed to mention an even bigger problem with Hahn, which is his insistence that hydroxychloroquine is causing harm to patients despite scientific and anecdotal evidence to the contrary from doctors who have successfully used this treatment. That’s probably pretty convenient for his mass vaccination agenda, so we won’t see him criticize anyone suppressing HCQ any time soon.
The FDA will have to approve any coronavirus vaccine before it can go to market. Gates told CNBC that of all the pharmaceutical companies working on a vaccine, only Pfizer has the potential to deliver one in a matter of weeks. Not surprisingly, the Gates Foundation owns shares of Pfizer.
Most Americans are skeptical of any coronavirus vaccine
Recent polls have shown that most Americans are concerned that the vaccine is being rushed. A CBS News poll found that two thirds of American voters said that should a vaccine be announced this year, their first thought would be that it had been rushed through with inadequate testing rather than considering it a scientific achievement that occurred quickly. Of that group, only 13 percent would be willing to get the shot as soon as possible.
People are also losing faith in the CDC. In March, 86 percent of voters said they trusted the CDC to provide accurate information about coronavirus; that figure now stands at just 54 percent. There have also been drops in those who trust their state’s governor, President Trump and the media for accurate information about the disease compared to this spring.
Meanwhile, when asked in a Gallup poll if they would be willing to a get a COVID-19 vaccine that had been approved by the FDA and was given to them at no cost, 35 percent of Americans said they would not.
As right as Gates is not to trust the FDA with this matter – or any matter, really – hearing this skepticism coming from him is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The FDA might actually be slightly more trustworthy than Bill Gates on vaccines, but it’s a very low bar indeed.
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