In an age where everyone can go online and publicize their wildest thoughts, I am no stranger to conspiracy theories. But this one caught me a bit off guard. Most of you probably know of Bill Gates, probably not of his immense philanthropic work, but as the second richest individual on the planet. As the world is coming apart at the seams, he has made his way back into the public eye with a handful of tv appearances, a Netflix documentary, and a YouTube video that has exploded almost as fast as the virus. Each of which, relates to the corona virus and how the response should be handled. This is a highly contested issue, rightly so, as it has forced millions out of work and killed over 250,000 people worldwide. Mr. Gate’s position is that we stay the course and continue isolation, as science recommends, and funnel massive amounts of money into research and testing. He has not only said this is what must be done but has contributed over 350 million dollars, through his foundation, to finding a vaccine and improving testing. This has stirred a few people up. And when I say a few I mean nearly every person who has decided to leave a comment or respond to his tweets or press releases.
You have the, “what does a rich computer guy know about public health” fella, the “he’s going to put a microchip in the vaccine and control us!” fella and the every more dangerous, “a rich person doesn’t deserve to give us ‘normal people’ advice” fella. They all have their arguments but between the three of them, not a single good argument can be found. While he is a rich computer guy, he has also spent the last 20 years promoting vaccination across the world and is one of the worlds largest advocates for the improvement of global health. Putting a microchip in the vaccine would be kind of cool, we could finally use Word, and excel in our brains but sadly, we may have to wait a little bit for that one. This claim stems from his comments on the implementation of quantum dots, which would basically be a vaccination record that would be accessed by scanning a place on your wrist. Its like a QR on a box of cereal but ten thousand times more complicated and 100,000 times more beneficial than a box of lucky charms. His push for vaccination is not a masterplan for mind control but the simple reality that vaccination is the single most lifesaving development medicine has ever seen; antibiotics could also be argued, of course. The work that his foundation has done has driven polio to near eradication, malaria to record lows, and has helped contain the HIV epidemic, all through the means of vaccination and science. Yeah, he is worth more than 100 billion dollars, yeah, he lives a drastically different life than you and me but just because he is rich does not make the science and progress, he is promoting any less valuable.
It is okay to dislike an individual, but trying to debunk his sound, scientifically backed stance on a scientific issue, because of his wealth is rather stupid. We should actually be quite glad that he is so outspoken and generous with his inordinate amounts of money because 350 million dollars is now being used to find a cure. He may not be a doctor but has experience and a wide-ranging staff of virologists and specialists that advise his every move. Medical problems require medical solutions and leaving science at the door has not been beneficial thus far. It is absolutely okay to have differing political views, but I cant really stress this enough, its not a political issue, it is a global health crisis.
We have not seen something that has altered our daily lives so drastically. That is a huge claim, but everyone is effected by it. Its hard to know the status of the world because every time you change the channel you are greeted with different numbers and slander of other news stations. A large chunk of the hysteria is an information problem, the people lack the confidence in the science because it is constantly discredited. That is what is costing lives; that is dangerous for everyone. Embracing the science and the models produced by individuals much smarter and aware than us is our best bet at moving forward. We cannot believe everything we see on the news or twitter and it takes a bit of extra work to find a realistic narrative. Believing that Bill Gates sets out to control our minds and monopolize a vaccine for the corona virus is damaging for everyone. Wealthy people are entitled to make claims that they believe will make the world better regardless of the politics.
As you may know, Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur, made some claims that directly opposed ole Bill’s stance. He received equal backlash stating, “he only wants to reopen the economy to make more money” and other baseless assertations of that type. Although I do not necessarily agree which his stance as it contradicts most of what I have wrote thus far, just because he is wealthy does not disentitle him to his opinion and automatically root his opinion in greed and corruption. As always there are two sides to every issue, and both should be explored. Elon’s comments unfortunately cost Telsa 18 billion dollars of value, whereas, Bill’s may save the lives of hundreds of thousands. Trust the numbers, trust the doctors, and trust the rigor of science.
Photograph from the article "What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine" via GatesNotes
Of course, my opinions are the distillation of the research and knowledge that I have so if you think I missed something, would like to discuss, or absolutely hate this post, feel free to let me know, my contact info is below.
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Photographs by GatesNotes.