The volume of "crazy" and "evil" conspiracy theories about him that were being spread all across social media during the Covid-19 pandemic about the Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates had taken the billionaire aback.
Gates would like to investigate what is behind them, he said in an interview with the news agency Reuters on Wednesday.
A vicious combination of a frightening viral pandemic and the rise of social media was possibly partly responsible for the millions of online posts and "crazy conspiracy theories" that were spread across the social media platforms during the pandemic about Gates and the top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, said Gates in the interview.
"Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories," Gates said.
"I'm very surprised by that. I hope it goes away," he added.
At least $1.75 billion has been committed to the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic by the billionaire Gates through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates who had founded Microsoft stepped down as the chairman of the company in 2014 and completely retired since then. The Covid-19 philanthropic efforts of Gates during the pandemic include providing financial support to some of the vaccine makers, diagnostics, and potential treatments.
Millions of conspiracies have spread over the Internet since the pandemic began a year ago. There was a huge amount of misinformation about the coronavirus, about the origin of the pandemic and the intentions and hidden motives of the people who were trying to address the health crisis.
The misinformation included false claims of Gates and Fauci and Gates having created the pandemic with the aim of controlling people and that the duo wanted to make financial profits from the spread of the virus as well as theories about the two supporting vaccination because they wanted to insert trackable microchips into people concealed in the vaccines.
"But do people really believe that stuff?," Gates asked. "We're really going to have to get educated about this over the next year and understand .. how does it change peoples' behaviour and how should we have minimized this?"
Praising Francis Collins, head of the US National Institutes of Health and Faucu as being "smart" and "wonderful people", Gates said he looked forward to seeing them able to work effectively and speak the truth under the new administration of President Joe Biden.
It had "sometimes felt like they were the only sane people in the US government" during former President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic, Gates said.
"I'm excited about the team that Biden has picked" to tackle the health crisis, Gates said.
The decision of the US president Joe Biden to take the United States back to the World Health Organization had pleased him, Gates said and added "that he's appointed smart people, and the fact that Dr. Fauci won't be suppressed."
(Source:www.hindustantimes.com)
Gates would like to investigate what is behind them, he said in an interview with the news agency Reuters on Wednesday.
A vicious combination of a frightening viral pandemic and the rise of social media was possibly partly responsible for the millions of online posts and "crazy conspiracy theories" that were spread across the social media platforms during the pandemic about Gates and the top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, said Gates in the interview.
"Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories," Gates said.
"I'm very surprised by that. I hope it goes away," he added.
At least $1.75 billion has been committed to the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic by the billionaire Gates through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates who had founded Microsoft stepped down as the chairman of the company in 2014 and completely retired since then. The Covid-19 philanthropic efforts of Gates during the pandemic include providing financial support to some of the vaccine makers, diagnostics, and potential treatments.
Millions of conspiracies have spread over the Internet since the pandemic began a year ago. There was a huge amount of misinformation about the coronavirus, about the origin of the pandemic and the intentions and hidden motives of the people who were trying to address the health crisis.
The misinformation included false claims of Gates and Fauci and Gates having created the pandemic with the aim of controlling people and that the duo wanted to make financial profits from the spread of the virus as well as theories about the two supporting vaccination because they wanted to insert trackable microchips into people concealed in the vaccines.
"But do people really believe that stuff?," Gates asked. "We're really going to have to get educated about this over the next year and understand .. how does it change peoples' behaviour and how should we have minimized this?"
Praising Francis Collins, head of the US National Institutes of Health and Faucu as being "smart" and "wonderful people", Gates said he looked forward to seeing them able to work effectively and speak the truth under the new administration of President Joe Biden.
It had "sometimes felt like they were the only sane people in the US government" during former President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic, Gates said.
"I'm excited about the team that Biden has picked" to tackle the health crisis, Gates said.
The decision of the US president Joe Biden to take the United States back to the World Health Organization had pleased him, Gates said and added "that he's appointed smart people, and the fact that Dr. Fauci won't be suppressed."
(Source:www.hindustantimes.com)
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