# What ever happened to that money the Gates foundation was supposed to be giving out? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** factual, covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [May 3, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ever-happened-to-that-money-the-gates-foundation-was-supposed-to-be-giving-out/941256 "2021-05-03T01:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ever-happened-to-that-money-the-gates-foundation-was-supposed-to-be-giving-out/941256/1 "2021-05-03T01:20:49Z")
Back in 2020, we heard a lot about how the Gates foundation was going to help us get vaccines faster. Pre-funding plants, that sort of thing. > **[Gates Foundation announces new funds to develop COVID-19 vaccines and...](https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2020/11/gates-foundation-announces-new-funds-to-develop-covid-19-vaccines)** > > Speaking at the Paris Peace Forum today, Melinda Gates will commit an additional $70 million and urge accelerated global action to end pandemic for everyone, everywhere > Speaking at the Paris Peace Forum today, Melinda Gates will commit an additional $70 million and urge accelerated global action to end pandemic for everyone, everywhere > **[How Bill Gates Helped Make the COVID-19 Vaccine Possible](https://observer.com/2020/12/how-bill-gates-helped-make-the-covid-19-vaccine-possible/)** > > Since the emergence of COVID-19, Bill Gates has been one of the most familiar public faces on the airwaves, having been involved in pandemic awareness and preparation for years. > A recent additional commitment of $250 million brings the [total Gates Foundation COVID-19 investment to $1.75 billion](https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-announces-250-million-covid/story?id=74651890). But here we are. We have vaccine produced by some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms (Pfizer/BioNTech, Astrazeneca, the Serum Institute of India) and some startups (Moderna) that were already working on this sort of thing. And by the nations of Russia and China, I think. And the US government pre-funded some of that, as did some other governments, I believe. Did Gates give anyone money to build vaccine plants? Who? How has that played out? There’s a related question of why Gates is pressuring the world to keep vaccine patents private property, but I’d rather not get lost in the politics in this thread. I’m just trying to figure out what actually has happened, money-wise, in developing covid vaccines. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ever-happened-to-that-money-the-gates-foundation-was-supposed-to-be-giving-out/941256/2 "2021-05-03T01:57:57Z")
Well [here’s](https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2020/11/gates-foundation-announces-new-funds-to-develop-covid-19-vaccines) what the Gates Found said back in Nov > Today’s announcement brings the foundation’s total commitment to Gavi’s COVAX AMC to $156 million. And the donor page at Covax seems to back that up. (I’m having trouble like making directly to the page so [here’s the wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVAX) I know that’s not $1.75 bn, that’s just one org. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ever-happened-to-that-money-the-gates-foundation-was-supposed-to-be-giving-out/941256/3 "2021-05-03T02:03:48Z")
Here’s a better page > **[COVID-19 FAQ | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation](https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/covid19-faq)** > > The most frequently asked questions about the foundation's COVID-19 response answered. > [@](#): > > The foundation has committed more than $1.75 billion to support the global response to COVID-19. This includes: > > More than $680 million in newly allocated funding, to help slow transmission; support responses in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; fund the development and procurement of new tests, treatments, and vaccines; alleviate the social and economic effects of the pandemic; and ensure equitable, timely, and scaled delivery of proven interventions. > > Up to $750 million in guarantees, forgivable loans, and other financing from our Strategic Investment Fund, which uses financial tools other than grants to help address market challenges and stimulate private sector innovation. The financing enables the rapid procurement of essential medical supplies, like tests, and helps companies finance the production of COVID-19 products for low- and middle-income countries. Any financial returns generated by the Strategic Investment Fund are re-invested in Gates Foundation philanthropic programs. > > More than $315 million from other programs where grantees were uniquely positioned to leverage existing work and expertise to support the COVID-19 response directly, while continuing to support existing priorities. This is just taking their word for it, but it’s something ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ever-happened-to-that-money-the-gates-foundation-was-supposed-to-be-giving-out/941256/4 "2021-05-03T02:05:30Z")
[They have a page](https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/campaigns/covid-19) with both an FAQ as well as a large number of articles covering this sort of thing, including a recent one about the next $250 million pledge. A lot of it has been and will be used by and for developing nations. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ever-happened-to-that-money-the-gates-foundation-was-supposed-to-be-giving-out/941256/5 "2021-05-03T02:05:44Z")
Philanthropy is somewhat rife with hard to track down commitments and follow up of this sort. Now, depending on the form of a philanthropy (foundation vs non-profit charity etc), there are different reporting and legal requirements, which most charities adhere to strictly. But unlike say, a publicly traded company that has broader requirements to not deceive shareholders (which could manipulate the market among other things), philanthropies don’t have a lot of oversight when it comes to specific stuff like this. Since Foundations do not solicit donations from the public, they are generally much less regulated than other forms of charity (in fact some Foundations aren’t used for charitable purpose at all.) So the TLDR is, it’s very easy for a Foundation to announce a grant, and it be very difficult to track down specific receipts. Given what we know about the Gates Foundation I don’t suspect they regularly lie about the money they give out, but they are not required to provide a lot of data to us on their finances, and I suspect that they don’t want to set the precedent of having to explain themselves to that degree as they don’t want to develop that sort of relationship with the public/press.