Bill Gates tests positive for COVID-19, says he has "mild symptoms"

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has spent over a billion dollars to fight the current pandemic through his foundation, has now been infected by the virus, The New York Times reported. 

Gates took to Twitter to state that he had mild symptoms and was isolating till he was healthy once again. 

I've tested positive for COVID. I'm experiencing mild symptoms and am following the experts' advice by isolating until I'm healthy again.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 10, 2022

No vaccine for 'infodemic'

Gates also stated in a Twitter thread that he was fully vaccinated and had taken his booster dose. Unlike him, about 55 million Americans are yet to take their first dose of the vaccine, which we had reported last month resulting in the wastage of millions of vaccine doses.

Health agencies haven't been able to shake off vaccine hesitancy in the country, dubbed as the 'infodemic of misinformation' by the World Health Organization. Gates, himself, has been part of the misinformation campaign that fears tracking after vaccinations.  '

It is not clear if Gates has been infected before. 

How to prevent the next pandemic

Gates, who had forewarned about a pandemic way back in 2015, recently proposed establishing a global task force to track outbreaks that could turn into the next pandemic. Gates' proposal requires countries to coordinate their efforts to eliminate respiratory diseases and avert pandemics, The New York Times reported. 

Requiring a purse of a billion dollars a year, Gates had said that the task force needed to be overseen by the WHO, which currently did not have even ten people working full time on epidemic preparedness.

Gates has spent millions of dollars to fund testing, treatment, and vaccine distribution through global health agencies like GAVI and World Health Organization (WHO). Gates will rely on Microsoft's Teams application to be a part of the foundation's first meeting in two years, he tweeted. He also stated that the foundation will continue working with its partners so that nobody has to deal with a pandemic again.