
Bill Gates: Responding to Covid-19 – A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic? - bjourne
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2003762
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gowld
Bill Gates is an epidemiologist?

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paulddraper
Surprisingly, no. He's founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft.

Popular public figure, plus famously finances medical research and charity
work.

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coribuci
> Surprising, no. He's founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft.

> Popular public figure, plus famously finances medical research and charity
> work.

YMMV. A lot of rich people finance medical research ( some because they are
sick) and charity "work" helps them avoid taxes.

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anonsivalley652
In general yes and no, in this case no. I think he sees it as a personal moral
obligation by how he was raised.

In general, there are some extreme examples:

\- The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is a non-profit with a
multibillion endowment. It's how many American billionaires get tax benefits
immediately while transferring assets later. And, the SVCF doesn't do very
much community work except for donors' pet projects that may or may not be for
the public good.

The previous maybe some ostensible philanthropy, but that's not how every very
rich person operates: Patriotic Millionaires (calling for more taxes) and The
Good Club (Bill Gates, Oprah, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner and more) are
definitely counterexamples to the stereotype.

