Bill Gates on Trump virus treatment: The word ‘cure’ is inappropriate because it won’t work for everyone

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday that the monoclonal antibodies treatment President Trump received for his coronavirus infection is not a “cure,” but is the most promising option thus far.

“The word ‘cure’ is inappropriate because it won’t work for everyone,” Gates said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But of all the therapeutics, this is the most promising.”

Gates added that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has “been working with companies doing antibodies, we reserved factory capacity back in the spring, and now we’re partnered with Eli Lilly, who with Regeneron, has been the fastest to get these antibodies ready.”

WATCH: @BillGates explains how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been “working with the companies doing antibodies” research for Covid-19 treatment. #MTP

Gates: “We’re partnered with Eli Lilly, who with Regeneron, has been the fastest to get these antibodies ready.” pic.twitter.com/P5Fvi12WCF

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 11, 2020

“They could reduce the death rate quite a bit … adding this to the tools would be a great thing,” he added.

“They call them therapeutic, but to me it wasn’t therapeutic,” Trump said in a video he tweeted last week, five days after receiving the experimental treatment from the biotech company Regeneron

Trump said that he felt better immediately after taking the drugs.

“I call that a cure,” he said. “It’s a cure.”

Bill Gates on Sunday also warned against politicians opening large venues without social-distancing measures.

“I guess politicians will show what their value system is there,” he said. “Society should be able to have things like schooling that get a priority, vs. certain more entertainment-related things.”

NEW: @BillGates says “politicians will show what their value system is” when deciding whether or not to re-open entertainment venues. #MTP

“The only way we’ll get completely back to normal is by having … a vaccine that is super effective and that a lot of the people take.” pic.twitter.com/fJ5ZfD5wPZ

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 11, 2020

“The only way we’ll get completely back to normal is by having … a vaccine that is super effective and that a lot of the people take,” he said.

Gates went on to express confidence that ” it’s likely that by early next year that several of these vaccines” currently in development “will get that emergency-use authorization.”