The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is a sounding board for the business world's obsessions and a showcase for its versatility. In 2022, the Covid-19 pandemic eclipsed all other subjects – tests and masks were mandatory. Now, on Monday January 15, there's not a mask in sight and no need for a certificate. Even Ukraine is fading from the conversation, and the most beautiful house on the Promenade, the city's main thoroughfare, has been renamed "AI House" for the occasion.
Ordinary flu deaths have dropped off the radar and many brand-new vaccines have been thrown away. Bill Gates, whose foundation devotes most of its resources to providing vaccines for poor countries, knows that he is no longer the prophet of our times. The epidemic will return one day, but the planet is looking the other way for the time being.
This hasn't stopped Microsoft's co-founder from continuing to spend his immense fortune on the fight he's been waging for over 20 years at the head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He's even going the extra mile, with the world's richest foundation announcing on Monday that it would further increase its budget for 2024, to $8.6 billion (€7.8 billion) – up 30% compared to 2021. This far exceeds the World Health Organization's $6.7 billion, which is nevertheless sponsored by its 194 members.
Unchanged mantra
In Davos, he's working hard on the future of healthcare, reminding the assembled business leaders that vaccination is still a matter of life and death for a large proportion of the world's population. The savvy businessman that Gates still is can reap the rewards of his investment. On Friday, January 12, we learned that Cape Verde had become the third African country to eradicate malaria.
Polio, which was paralyzing 350,000 children a year in 2000, affected just 12 in 2023. The billionaire's mantra has not changed: With simple, inexpensive technologies, spectacular results can be achieved, whether in the fight against diarrhea, post-partum hemorrhage in Africa, or the vaccination of girls against HPV.
This doesn't stop Bill Gates from being hated by a lot of malcontents who see him as being behind a schemer and who would no doubt prefer to see fortunes spent on boat races, artistic masterpieces or dreams of Mars. For others, he embodies a kind of good conscience, proving that amassed fortunes can sometimes help the most fragile members of humanity.