NEW YORK: Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has met once with US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. since he took office, and the two “agreed to disagree” about vaccines, Gates told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
Kennedy has long promoted doubts about vaccine safety and efficacy, and as health secretary, he has upended U.S. vaccine policy.
The pair met in July, Gates’ staff said. The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest global health funders, and Gates is a prominent supporter of immunizations.
“We agreed to disagree on some things about vaccines, but moved on to talk about areas that we would agree on,” said Gates.
Gates said that he was concerned, though, that skepticism on vaccines was spreading from the US.
“It is tragic that we see this vaccine skepticism, because even though the number of additional deaths in the rich world is likely to be modest, every life should count,” he said.
He told Reuters it was dangerous to see skepticism spreading in low-income countries particularly because for example, malnourished children are more vulnerable to measles.
“Over 1,000 kids get measles in the United States, you might have three or four deaths. In Africa, you’ll have 300 deaths,” he said.
But he said that he still hoped to work with Kennedy.
“If we’re at all pragmatic, we should be able to find a way to work together,” he told Reuters ahead of the foundation’s annual Goalkeepers event in New York.
The event celebrates and seeks to accelerate progress on United Nations global development goals set for 2030, including improving health and ending poverty.
Gates said the US funds important research in areas like maternal health and gestational diabetes.
The U.S. could benefit from the foundation’s work to bring down the costs of disease prevention and treatment tools in low-income countries, such as for HIV, Gates said.
Gates on Monday pledged $912 million, to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and urged governments to step up.
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