The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given hundreds of millions of dollars to health care causes, including $250 million to specifically aid development of COVID-19 vaccines and prevention methods. Gates also has been an international spokesperson regarding how the world can tamp down the spread of the disease. He is, in fact, nearly as visible as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Biden.

On several occasions, Gates has made predictions about how quickly the world can return to “normal.” Recently, just after receiving his second dose of the vaccine, he updated his opinion. In an interview on social media app Clubhouse, Gates told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, “I want to set a good example. If you’re vaccinated, you can still transmit.” 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the recently appointed head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently expressed worry that public behavior might spur a new rise in cases.

However, Gates was hopeful: “It’s only by late spring or summer that we’re going to get to numbers where you can look at changing your behavior in a significant way,” he said. 

Here’s the good news and bad news about Gates’s prediction