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Bill Gates announced that he has COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms. In an announcement on Twitter, Gates said he was currently self-isolating.
"I have tested positive for COVID. I am experiencing mild symptoms and following expert advice by self-isolating until I am healthy again," Gates said in a tweet on Twitter, as quoted from Cnet, Wednesday (11/5/2022).
The Microsoft co-founder added that he was lucky to have been vaccinated and got a booster and to have access to great medical tests and treatments.
Gates' announcement of a positive COVID-19 test result comes less than two weeks after he said his fortune had helped him and those closest to him avoid the virus.
"I have perfect internet, a big house, a private plane with no risk of infection. I can meet my children," Gates said in an interview with The Times on May 1.
It is not known how Gates caught COVID-19. In a tweet, he said his charity Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had just met physically for the first time in two years.
But a spokesperson for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the meeting had been planned long before Gates became infected with COVID-19. The 66-year-old man also attended the meeting virtually.
"We will continue to work with partners and do everything we can to make sure no one else has to deal with a pandemic again," Gates said.
As a co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates has spent billions of dollars helping to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Even before the pandemic, Gates' charitable foundation distributed vaccines to developing countries.
Although not a scientist or a doctor, Gates has several times given his views on the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of last year he also did a Q&A on Twitter about the Corona virus.
In the Q&A, Gates said the biggest scientific breakthrough that could stop a pandemic would be a better and longer-lasting vaccine.
"The vaccines we have prevent severe symptoms and death very well but they don't have two main points," Gates said.
"First, vaccines still allow infection (breakthrough) and their duration seems limited. We need vaccines that prevent re-infection and have a duration of years," he added.
