Bill Gates says Trump claim about COVID cure is 'inappropriate' - News Today

Bill Gates says Donald Trump is wrong to call monoclonal antibodies treatment a 'cure' for COVID-19, but says it’s the most promising therapeutic in research for now.'The word "cure" is inappropriate because it won't work for everyone. But of all the therapeutics, this is the most promising,' The Microsoft founder said on Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press.Those monoclonal antibodies are being developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, as well as Eli Lilly and other companies, and the drugs mimic antibodies that the immune system naturally produces to fight off viruses and other pathogens.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been active in research for a coronavirus cure. 'We’ve been working with the companies doing antibodies. We reserved factory capacity all the way back in the spring and now we’re partnered with Eli Lilly, who with Regeneron, has been the fastest to get these antibodies ready,' he explained.'They can reduce the death rate quite a bit,' he added.Last week President Donald Trump touted monoclonal antibodies as a cure saying he felt better after taking them.'They call them therapeutic, but to me it wasn’t therapeutic,' Trump said in a video he tweeted Wednesday. 'I call that a cure. It’s a cure.'His statement came five days after he received Regeneron’s antibody drug cocktail in his COVID-19 treatment. Share this article Share Trump returned to the White House on Monday October 5 after spending three days hospitalized at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Maryland for coronavirus.The monoclonal antibody cocktail is considered experimental because clinical trials are ongoing and it hasn’t been approved for the market by the FDA.Trump was able to receive it through the FDA’s 'compassionate use' provision, where unapproved drugs are administered to seriously ill patients who have no other treatment options.While Regeneron has shared promising results of the treatment, which cut the viral load of COVID-19 patients who were not hospitalized, there is no evidence the drug cut the risk of death or 'cured' patients.Trump resumed public events on Saturday sharing a speech from the White House balcony that his doctor cleared him to return to an active schedule.The memo from Trump’s physician Dr. Sean Conley said the president met US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for 'the safe discontinuation of isolation', but did not say if Trump has tested negative for the virus yet. However, on Sunday Trump claimed he's cured of COVID-19, just over one week after his diagnosis, saying he's now 'immune from the virus'. 'Once you recover, you're immune,' Trump told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on 'Sunday Morning Futures' in a phone interview. 'Now yo