Believe it or not, Mark Zuckerberg’s donation didn’t even reach one percent of his wealth.
As the world grows weary every day, fighting for their own lives against the novel coronavirus, we see the citizens of the world doing their best to heal from this catastrophic pandemic. While countless corporations—whether it’s in the fashion, beauty, and even tech industry—are producing all the medical supplies and financial assistance needed, the matter of fact is, it’s still not enough.
In order to solve this crisis, one must go to the root cause of the problem and find a cure. And this is what exactly some of the world’s top billionaires have done. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has teamed up with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to contribute to the latter’s COVID-19 research cure.
Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, alongside Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged to donate a whopping $25 million.”I’m really proud to share that (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) is gonna be joining Gates and others to put together something they’re calling the ‘therapeutics accelerator to fight coronavirus,” Chan told CBS This Morning in an exclusive interview.
Chan explained that the collective’s goal will be “to fund a group to screen all the drugs that we know have potential effects against coronavirus.” That’s because one drug can often be used to treat multiple diseases, Zuckerberg elaborated.
“So, you can basically take all those drugs that have already been screened as safe and test them to see if they might also have a positive impact for either preventing the coronavirus or reducing the symptoms and making it less damaging,” the tech billionaire added.
The True Cost
We can’t deny the fact that we’re fortunate to have billionaires who generously share their wealth to the world, fully-understanding that we’re all in this fight together. But there’s another question that we’re curious about, and we know that you are too: How much would $25 million costs Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth?
Well, according to Forbes, Facebook’s CEO has a total net worth of 58.2 billion dollars which is approximately 2.9 trillion pesos as of March 30, 2020. Although this may be, props to Zuckerberg because the billionaire has maintained not to have a taste for opulence—whether it’s cars, clothes, and travel—unlike the other new money rich individuals.
So, as we did a little bit of digging (and computing), we eventually found ourselves surprised by his donation. For some of us, $25 million worth of donation is tremendously huge. But Zuckerberg begs to differ. Apparently, it only cost the tech billionaire 0.042 percent of his total wealth.
However, regardless if some would think it’s too big or too small, what matters, in the long run, is to help each other in flattening the curve, and find the best solution to this global pandemic that’s already taking thousands of innocent lives.
Looking for a way to donate and help with the COVID-19 pandemic? Click here to learn more about the organizations that are asking for your assistance now.
