Bill Gates is proposing we build factories to manufacture the seven most promising vaccines, so they can all be tested in parallel.

“A few billion in this situation, where there are trillions of dollars being lost economically, it is worth it… we can save months because every month counts.”

I agree with Gates. I also think that the construction needs to be 100% subsidized by the US government to eliminate the risk for private companies.

The approach reminds me of a quote from the film Contact starring Jodie Foster. In the film, the world had put a GoFundMe type campaign together to finance the construction of a machine that would make contact with extraterrestrial life. When the machine was tested, a religious fanatic destroyed the machine, and all hope was lost. But then S. R. Hadden, a billionaire industrialist who was dying of cancer and was now in residence on the Mir space station, revealed that his company had secretly made a second machine in Japan.

Here Hadden’s quote that reminds me of Bill Gates’ proposal to build seven factories:

Hadden : First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors.

Photo by Matt Benson on Unsplash