Journalist Tim Schwab has been keeping a close watch on Bill Gates and his efforts to buy favorable media coverage. Now, he examines Gates’ very successful moves to enrich himself during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Bill and Melinda continue to receive laudatory treatment by the media that they underwrite, as if they are experts on everything from the pandemic to education. No mainstream journal has given any coverage–to my knowledge–of Gates’ serial failures to improve education, in which he uses teachers and students as guinea pigs for his theories.
Schwab writes in The Nation (which Gates does not subsidize):
In the early days of the pandemic, President Trump made headlineswhen he reportedly tried to secure rights to a vaccine from German developer CureVac on behalf of the US government—a move that stirred questions about equity and justice. Should the United States get priority access to the Covid vaccine just because we are the world’s wealthiest nation? Shouldn’t the most vulnerable—no matter their nationality or salary—get vaccinated first?
“Capitalism has its limits,” one German lawmaker noted in a widely reported tweet.
Had Trump succeeded, the deal might also have sent another stark message about economic inequality—delivering a financial windfall to one of the most moneyed players in the pandemic response: the Gates Foundation.
The foundation recently reported a $40 million stake in CureVac—one of dozens of investments the foundation reports having in companies working on Covid vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics or manufacturing, according to The Nation’s analysis of the foundation’s most recent tax return, web site, and various SEC filings. The foundation has also announced that it will “leverage a portion of its $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund” to advance its work on Covid.
These investments, amounting to more than $250 million, show that the world’s most visible charity, and one of the world’s most influential voices in the pandemic response, is in a position to potentially reap considerable financial gains from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Trump Administration apprentice program is junk:
https://www.apprenticeship.gov/apprenticeship-finder
Try it out. Search your zip code. Mine turns up an “apprenticeship” for an automotive technician. Except one of the requirements is 3 years working as an automotive technician.
Congress gave them hundreds of millions of dollars for apprenticeships. What on earth did they spend it on? These aren’t apprenticeships- they are advertisements for employment. Did these companies receive public funding for phony “apprenticeships”?
There should be an investigation into this- they burned through hundreds of millions of dollars that was supposed to go to training young people and it’s garbage.
Shut it down before they can steal more.
Interesting link, thanks. As I’m near NYC it turned up a lot of opportunities. Many (but not all) of the construction & mfg trades were like the one you found, i.e. requiring experience in the field. One even required having completed an apprenticeship program LOL. Looks like these most highly-sought categories as always are tough to break into without connections. Walgreens however offered many pharmacy apprenticeships which were user-friendly, designed to help beginners work their way through certif steps. A lot of lower-paid work– salon help & dog-grooming/ training were the most common– were true apprenticeships.
p.s. there was an amazing ad for apprenticeship to a progressive ed effort in NJ involving teaching mixed-age groups using Socratic method. Surprisingly little background reqd altho Montessori cert was a plus. !
Gates is such a weasel. He should pay his taxes and shut his big mouth.
Thank you for covering this topic Diane. I know Gates has not been friendly to the world of education and you have often said that he should go back to helping in the world of health. I have always disagreed with this idea – if an individual’s actions/conflicts of interest are apparent in one area they invest in how can you assume they play nice in the other areas they have financial incentives? These are not separate areas. Vaccines impact education as they impact our children’s health. Why do we have so many special needs children? Could it be because we have so many more vaccines than we used to? (Birth – 18 is now up to 72 doses of vaccines – this includes boosters) or is it that some of them may not be as safe as we have been led to believe? I don’t know or claim to have the answers but I do think we need to start looking at conflicts of interest and really taking a look at safety studies.
I don’t know where Gates should put his money. People in medical science have said that he dominates their fields and buys up peer reviewers. My view is that he should act as foundations used to do: Accept proposals and fund what people need, instead of imposing his hunches and theories on others. I would be very happy if he funded no experiments in education but used his money to rebuild schools that don’t have money for repairs and renovation. At least he would do no harm.
AH,
You ask ” Why do we have so many special needs children? Could it be because we have so many more vaccines than we used to?”
The answer, of course, is no. There is no evidence to support your speculation.
“Special needs” is another term for “special education.” The large number does not imply (as you seem to) many retarded or otherwise physically handicapped children. The category is disproportionately found among poor children, and many stop their analysis right there. The effects of poverty on ability to learn are manifold & have nothing to do with vaccination.
I look at it differently. Many have to be classified “SpEd” due to our relentless push for ever-higher ed “achievement” for all, using standardized [faux] means of measurement and assessment. This is my bias as a mom of two out of three with IEP’s. The process struck me as both an assembly line and a race. With an assembly line, QA/QC rejects non-conforming widgits. In a race, cars with problems frequently detour into pit-stop repairs. Another part of my bias is my rural childhood one-room schoolhouse. 25 kids total for 1st through 3rd grade—students ran the gamut from professor’s kids to just-arrived relatives from Appalachia. You had, e.g., small reading and math circles run by elder for younger children doing review and workbook exercises while teacher presented new material to one of the [tiny] grade groups. Each student moved ahead at his own pace with plenty of 1-on-1. The SpEd “methods” for my children were simply providing the small groups and extra 1-on-1 that conforming children supposedly don’t “need”– hence “special needs.”
Our government has failed to make the billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. We are now a plutocracy. The government has been so weakened by conservatives that we look to billionaires to address a national crisis. Our income inequality is a threat to democracy. Nobody voted for Gates or any other billionaires. Allowing the ultra-wealthy to interfere in public policies is feckless governance. People vote for direct representation, and they should get it. It is not the job of billionaires to lead, and it should not be surprising that the wealthy are making money from investments during a pandemic. Making money is the billionaires super power. We should require them to pay more in taxes and write legislation to control their power.
Bill Gates: showing us there can actually be a thin line between charity and manslaughter.
I am not inclined to defend the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), but I have examined CureVac’s SEC filing. The specifics of CureVac’s contractual agreements with the BMGF are spelled out in several sections of the filing (over 200 pages long). These are easily found by a keyword search for “Gates.”
CureVac is one of twelve companies working on a vaccine for Covid-19 but this SEC filing is not about that work.
The BMGF is funding CureVac’s development of three vaccines and a production facility for vaccines, but CureVac must meet the terms of the BMGF’s Global Access Agreement. This agreement identifies the BMGF as a shareholder and requires CureVac to make these vaccines available “at an affordable price in a list of clearly defined low and lower middle-income countries.” “In addition, the new manufacturing facility will have dedicated capacity to focus on products resulting from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-related projects for distribution in such low and lower middle-income countries.” At the same time, CureVac will still “be able to market such products in developed countries on our own or through licensees.” (p.118 and following).
This agreement is so binding that CureVac’s failure to meet the terms of the BMGF Global Access Agreement could tank the company. The SEC filing does not identify the low and lower middle-income countries that would benefit from the CureVac vaccines that Gates is helping to fund. An important feature of the BMGF’s “Global Access Agreements” are specifications about who has intellectual property rights. For more about these agreements and their purposes see https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/General-Information/Global-Access-Statement
The BMGF is “partnering” with CureVac by funding the development of three vaccines: a picornavirus vaccine, a universal influenza vaccine, and a malaria vaccine.
Rotavirus spreads easily among infants and young children. The virus can cause severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, and severe dehydration.
According to the CDC, two rotavirus vaccines are currently licensed for infants in the United States. Starting at 2 months old, infants should get two or three doses depending on the brand of rotavirus vaccine. The BMGF grants database shows it has awarded 102 grants for work on rotavirus vaccines with these summing to $486,426,021. None of these grants went to CareVac.
A universal influenza vaccine would make seasonal influenza vaccinations unnecessary and provide greater year-to-year protection. A recent article published by American Society for Microbiology indicates that here are now eight US companies with late-stage clinical trials of a universal influenza vaccine. Only one of these companies appears to be using a strategy similar to that of the Netherlands company CureVac. In 2017, the BMGF awarded a $1,871,607 grant to CureVac for work on a universal influenza vaccine.
Work on malaria vaccines at the BMGF has a long history. The database shows 161 grants for this purpose, for a total of $2,008,920,217. One of these grants, at $3,370,759, went to CureVac for work on a malaria vaccine.
According to a March 2015, from the BMGF, their recent $52 million grant to CureVac will support “continued development of CureVac’s platform technology and the construction of an industrial scale Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production facility. The same March 2015 press release explains that CureVac is pioneering the use of natural and chemically unmodified mRNA (Messenger ribonucleuc acid) as a data carrier to instruct the human body to produce its own proteins capable of fighting a wide range of diseases. CureVac’s novel technology and therapeutic platform allows for rapid, low-cost production of multiple thermostable drugs and vaccines eliminating the demand for cold storage, a major challenge in most developing countries.
I could not find a list of the specific countries that the BMGF regards as low or middle income. The Foundation’s discussion of its Global Development Delivery initiatives suggests that these lists are influenced by different rating schemes on mortality from diseases, income per capita, and other economic indicators. The World Bank, for example, uses four classifications. For the current 2021 fiscal year, low-income economies are defined as those with average income before taxes (GNI) per capita of $1,035 or less in 2019; lower middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $1,036 and $4,045; upper middle-income economies are those with average income before taxes (GNI) per capita between $4,046 and $12,535. High-income economies are those with a GNI per capita of $12,536 or more.
It is worth noting that the BMGF is a major funder of Seattle-based PATH, a global provider of research and programs treating malaria, rotavirus, other diseases in low and middle income countries. The BMGF has awarded PATH 43 grants for a huge total of $1,088,096,483. PATH also sends grants to other organizations working on health issues. A full list of these grants can be seen on PATH’s 990 IRS form (EIN 91-1157127). For a look at the wealth of the BMGF, look for IRS Form 990 (EIN 91-1663695).
Bottom line, the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation seems to be putting three of its most important vaccine-related efforts into the hands of Cure/Vac. The Gates Foundation has enough invested as a shareholder that it could to tank CureVac if the company if it fails to meet every detail in the “Global Access Agreement” with Gates. (The SEC filing says this, p. 69).
Gates likes to make money while also helping (or appearing to help) people who live in low and middle income countries. All of the prior grants that Gates has made in treating malaria, rotavirus, and seeking a universal influenza vaccine have been useful, perhaps, in educating Gates about which company he can hope to control and get the results he wants.