Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams recently stated that Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci were considered "the best experts at the time" regarding the initial timeline for COVID-19 vaccine development. Adams' comments, made on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on August 10, 2025, underscored the significant impact of mRNA vaccine technology on accelerating the process. According to Adams, without mRNA vaccines, Gates and Fauci had projected a much longer development period of "at least 18 to 24 additional months."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for decades until his departure in December 2022, was a prominent figure in the U.S. pandemic response. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and a leading philanthropist through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has long been involved in global health initiatives, particularly vaccine development and distribution. Their collaboration on vaccine efforts predates the COVID-19 pandemic, with Gates having praised Fauci as a "hero" for his public service.
Throughout the pandemic, both Fauci and Gates became central figures in public discourse, facing both praise and criticism. They were frequently targeted by conspiracy theories, particularly concerning vaccine development and public health measures. Gates himself acknowledged the "evil theories" that emerged, stating that he and Fauci were unexpectedly prominent in them.
Despite some past instances where Adams, during his tenure as Surgeon General under the Trump administration, appeared to diverge from certain public health messaging or predictive models associated with Fauci and Gates, his recent statement emphasizes their early insights into vaccine timelines. The rapid development and deployment of mRNA vaccines, a novel technology, significantly altered the trajectory initially envisioned by experts. This technological advancement allowed for a much quicker response than the historical record of vaccine development, which Adams noted typically took "six years" using older methods.