The spread of the coronavirus has thrown the world out of balance. The present situation calls upon members of the society who are obviously in more stable positions to reach out and assist those who are gravely affected.
Some of the society's super-rich may somewhat be affected by the pandemic as well. Richard Branson, for example, who had to put his private island as collateral for his ailing airline company.
Another case of a wealthy businessman, Gautam Adani, has been receiving margin calls and had to put up an additional $1.4 billion of shares as collateral on existing debt this month, according to Bloomberg.
However, the world's super-rich undeniably holds the key to influence and inject funds into their preferred sectors to try and combat the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
World's elite doing their part
Jeff Bezos, currently the world's richest person whose net worth recently grew by another $24 billion, gave away a whopping $100m to Feeding America, a food bank charity.
The organization declared that the amount is the largest it has ever received. The charity currently operates around 200 food banks and has said "countless lives will be changed because of his generosity" about Bezos' contribution.
Aside from this, Amazon is understood to be infusing $25m into an "Amazon Relief Fund" which aims to assist delivery drivers as well as irregular employees who are in financial turmoil.
Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed an automatic $100m towards detection, isolation, and vaccine development.
Vaccines and biotech stepping in
Gates has reportedly pronounced his willingness to spend billions to develop and produce a vaccine. "A few billion in this, the situation that we're in, where there are trillions of dollars being lost economically, it is worth it." was Gates' reaction in a recent interview.
James Richman, understood to be the richest businessmen from the Baltic States, has also joined the fight against COVID-19.
Through his non-profit organization, Richman is known to have launched a program to support the purchase and distribution of PPE's to the frontline workers.
The private investment fund manager, who amassed his fortune through investments in emerging technology, is understood to have allocated $18m in the development of coronavirus treatment and vaccine, as well as mobilize his biotechnology investments to help produce 3D-printed equipment needed by hospitals.
In other regions, Jack Ma, the richest Chinese businessman, has pledged $14.5m (100m yuan) to assist the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
The situation warrants more help
Cumulatively, the contributions of the world's billionaires have been massive. Yet, the donations are still dwarfed by the extremely huge demand for funding of the different sectors that combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Numerous reports reveal that the development of treatment and vaccines are going through unprecedented rapid processes. However, distribution to the public may still be a long way to go. We can only expect that the need for help will continue to grow in the future.
