‘Crazy and Perverse’: Bill Gates, surprised by Conspiracy Theories of Pandemic

Globe Live Media, Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist, says he has been surprised by the volume of “crazy” and “perverse” conspiracy theories about him that have spread on social media during the COVID pandemic. He said Wednesday that he would like to explore what’s behind them.

In an interview with Reuters, Gates said the millions of posts on the internet and the “crazy conspiracy theories” about him and America’s leading infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, were likely imposed in part by a combination of a terrifying viral pandemic and the rise of social media.

“No one would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci were going to be so prominent in these really wicked theories,” Gates said.

“I’m very surprised by it. I hope they are over.”

Gates, a billionaire who stepped down as president of Microsoft Corp in 2014, has committed at least $ 1.75 billion through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This figure includes funding for some vaccine manufacturers, diagnostics and possible treatments.

Since the pandemic began a year ago, millions of conspiracies have proliferated on the internet, fueling misinformation about the coronavirus, its origins and the motives of those working to combat it.

Among them are claims that Fauci and Gates created the pandemic to try to control people, that they want to profit from the spread of the virus, and that they want to use vaccines to insert traceable microchips into people.

“But do people really believe those things?” Gates asked.

“We’re really going to have to educate ourselves on this over the next year and understand … how people’s behavior changes and how we should have minimized this.”

ENTHUSIASTIC WITH BIDEN

Gates praised Fauci and Francis Collins, head of the US National Institutes of Health, as “smart” and “wonderful people,” and said he was looking forward to seeing them able to work effectively and speak the truth under the president’s new Administration. Joe Biden.

During former President Donald Trump’s management of the pandemic, Gates said, “it had at times been felt that they were the only sane people in the US government.”

“I’m excited about the team that Biden has chosen” to tackle the health crisis, Gates said.

Gates said he was also glad that, under Biden, the United States has rejoined the World Health Organization, and “that it has appointed smart people, and that Dr. Fauci is not being removed.”