
I’m Bill Gates. AMA about Covid-19 - mpweiher
https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fksnbf/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/
======
logjammin
Excuse a bit of hyperbole, but what sort of medieval nightmare-world are we
living in when the citizens of the world's most revered democracy are waiting
with bated breath for the pronouncements of the wealthy on fighting a viral
pandemic?

Gates Foundation, research, etc etc. I get it. He's been involved with health
stuff for a while. In theory, too, I'm open to a good idea regardless of its
source. But this remains a guy who dollars to doughnuts I'd bet does not know
how much milk costs at his supermarket. And he's telling us about chipping and
digital tattoos?

It'd be legit pretty hilarious if it weren't so insane.

~~~
jlawson
Bill called this years ago. He's also incidentally done more to save lives
from disease than possibly any other living human, having prevented millions
of deaths by malaria and other illnesses purely because he wanted to.

There is lots of other information out there from doctors and scientists. We
needed that and we got that. The point here is to get Bill's unique and
valuable high-level perspective.

Nobody is 'waiting with bated breath for the pronouncements of the wealthy';
this is ridiculous and I think you'll know it if you read it back with even
the slightest attempt to look at the situation neutrally.

~~~
logjammin
If he's so prescient about pandemics, why didn't he spend the last 20 years, I
don't know, making sure healthcare workers in his own darned city had enough
masks and gloves to deal with one? Surely he could've saved a few lives in his
own backyard while we was busy in Africa, right?

~~~
raisedbyninjas
This isn't how effective altruism works.

~~~
mistermann
Maybe it should be.

Think about it this way: had he done this, would it have made things better,
worse, or no change?

And don't forget: had he looked into this, he would have realized that they
were dramatically unprepared, and I suspect he would have been smart enough to
assume that there was a possibility that the same state of affairs may exist
in other cities, and then look into that.

Did this thought not cross his mind? It seems like an interesting question.

------
DethNinja
This is a total privacy nightmare. It is so sad that billionaires won’t use
their wealth for good especially at this pandemic.

This can also go much worse than privacy concerns:

Year 2040: Now chips contain remote activated doses of poison, if you don't
have good social credit or you are at the age of retirement(40) they can
remote activate it and kill you.

~~~
eric234223
Much more likely scenario is every vehicle runs on closed source software
controlled by state government which can halt the movement of the citizen at
will based on social credit or any some thing like that.

------
olivermarks
This is going to make people who are concerned that there is a global oligarch
overlord driven secret plan to dose up the world with vax disguised drugs and
chip them for compliance extremely concerned. I'm surprised Gates who 'can't
give his money away fast enough for it to not keep growing' has not injected a
significant amount of his massive wealth into the wold economy at this
critical time. Any of the measures he discusses will need very strong
accountability, transparency and data access political control by the people
to assuage concerns about fascism.

~~~
vearwhershuh
How about these rich guys just open a domestic mask factory or two? I think
I'd like to see that as an ante in the "Here is how you should all live going
forward" game.

~~~
cobookman
Because it takes months to open a mask factory.

~~~
vearwhershuh
Ah, well, that explains it. Mask technology is extremely advanced, after all.

And how long does it take to produce a safe, well tested vaccine that we are
supposed to give to our kids?

~~~
HeWhoLurksLate
_> And how long does it take to produce a safe, well tested vaccine that we
are supposed to give to our kids?_

Didn't we cover this in SARS-COV-1 and Ebola outbreak 1 and Ebola outbreak 2
and Ebola outbreak 3? It takes a while. Generally months. When one of these
shows up, you'll hear some news about an expiremental vaccine and someone
volunteering to get it, but it normally takes quite a while- _-months-_ to get
all the stuff in place to actually get it to your kids.

Betting on a vaccine swooping in to save isn't smart.

~~~
wool_gather
There is apparently one trial beginning now:
[https://www.npr.org/2020/03/21/818759617/i-wanted-to-do-
some...](https://www.npr.org/2020/03/21/818759617/i-wanted-to-do-something-
says-mother-of-2-who-is-first-to-test-coronavirus-vacci)

Per current rules, there's 14 months of monitoring involved before it is
considered safe.

------
zackees
This AMA is weird. Bill Gates mentions chipping everyone for vaccine purposes.
This is at best, extremely inefficient and insecure and open to fraud (I get a
chip, and now I can be someone else?). Additionally inserting a chip is
traumatic. People don't like the idea of having an electronic microchip
embedded in their bodies. Immune systems tend to reject that and
bacterial/yeast biofilms tend to grow on implants causing inflammation.

It's already been proven that biometrics are the gold standard for
identification. You can't swap in someone else biometrics and fraudulently
walk around as someone else. And you simply connect these biometrics to a
cloud registry and go from there. Why wouldn't we just go with what works?

And if you don't consent, do you get locked out of the economy? Or do we hold
you down and force inject you with a chip?

This implant doesn't make ANY sense and will systematize ID counterfeiting.
Shame on Bill Gates. This should be laughed out of the room and then scolded
as a human rights violation.

~~~
zbyte64
I believe context is needed, so here is Bill Gates:

"Eventually we will have some digital certificates to show who has recovered
or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has received it."

Either that means a biometrics being signed by 3rd parties or a chip being
signed by 3rd parties. At best there are major privacy concerns.

But things get weird elsewhere when you have developers talking about
"anonymously" tracking people for purposes of identifying contacts. Just
because you swap IDs with something random doesn't make it anonymous or safe.

"Shit like this is why im a developer." \- we have plenty of talent and a
plethora of bad ideas

------
gregoriol
At a time when there are so many rumors and wrong information, why is he
adding more confusion? he's involved in the efforts, but please let space for
doctors and scientists to talk about that subject, we need science to be at
the frontline, or people will also be tempted to listen to some crazy Elon
Musk or Adam Neumann too...

------
someonehere
He mentions he’s in favor of the MIT created digital tattoo to show when
people are vaccinated. I’m not thrilled with the idea of being marked like
cattle.

~~~
tcbawo
If only we had a system for 'fingerprinting' individuals, and digitizing the
results into a searchable 'database'

~~~
gpderetta
I know! We should use a Blockchain right?

/s obviously. Although probably less ridiculous than other uses.

------
Antoninus
Billionaires don't give enough! _argh_

------
ykevinator
Why would I ask Bill gates about a virus?

~~~
nouveaux
Because he's quite knowledgeable on the subject matter of pandemics.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI)

------
broncin_buck
Like it or not, BG is among the few public figures who currently hold any
authority/insight on this situation. Watch his TED Talk from 2015. Look at his
Foundation's activity.

See Event 201 from 6 months ago: "The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18,
2019, in New York, NY. The exercise illustrated areas where public/private
partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severe pandemic in
order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences."
([http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/](http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/))

So basically as recently as last year he was simulating/preparing for the
chaos we are experiencing now: "Event 201 simulates an outbreak of a novel
zoonotic coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually
becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe
pandemic. The pathogen and the disease it causes are modeled largely on SARS,
but it is more transmissible in the community setting by people with mild
symptoms. ... There is no possibility of a vaccine being available in the
first year. There is a fictional antiviral drug that can help the sick but not
significantly limit spread of the disease. ... Since the whole human
population is susceptible, during the initial months of the pandemic, the
cumulative number of cases increases exponentially, doubling every week. And
as the cases and deaths accumulate, the economic and societal consequences
become increasingly severe."
([http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.htm...](http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.html))

This sounds somewhat similar to what we're experiencing now, and it was Bill
Gates who possessed the foresight to see this before anyone else. If anyone
knows what's going on and what will happen in the coming future, it's him.
Know when to follow. You can question his motives and intentions, but you must
recognize his superior knowledge and preparedness.

~~~
mistermann
I believe your analysis may be somewhat imperfect, I will endeavor to explain
my reasoning. If you see flaws in my reasoning, I encourage you to point them
out to me so I may sharpen my own logical tools.

The way I see it, what you have presented is a narrative. It could be 100%
correct, it could be 100% incorrect, and it could be somewhere in between.

For the purposes of this exercise, let's assume it is true, or _true enough_.

Once a person holds a narrative such as this in their mind, it subsequently
facilitates the ability to make a broad range of very precise _predictions_ ,
both of the future, and the unknown in general. But don't forget: your mind is
producing _predictions_ , but sometimes these predictions have the nasty side
effect of not being distinguishable from facts. Fields like psychology,
neurology, etc have done significant work studying the particulars of this odd
behavior.

Now, let's take an example of some predictions and think more rigorously:

"If anyone knows what's going on and what will happen in the coming future,
it's him. Know when to follow. You can question his motives and intentions,
but you must recognize his superior knowledge and preparedness."

I will clarify this a bit (please let me know if I've done this in a manner
not to your liking):

\- Bill Gates has a demonstrated track record of exceptional skill in the
domain of pandemics.

\- An event has occurred related to the domain of pandemics.

\- Therefore, it logically follows that Bill Gates is _the_ person who knows
what's going on regarding this event.

\- Therefore, it logically follows that Bill Gates plans should be followed,
in their entirety.

Disclaimer: Yes, I do realize that I have taken the most uncharitable
interpretation of your words possible, _but that is my very point_. I believe
that if one desires to know the truth, uncharitable deconstruction of beliefs
into discrete binary statements is the most valuable tool that humans have at
our disposal. But rather than wield this impressive power in making the world
a better place, it seems like instead people prefer to use it to engage in
ideological arguments. Fiddling while Rome burns as they say.

And yes, I too see many obvious criticisms/shortcomings of this approach
(thinking about reality in a highly skilled manner is a bit complicated, go
figure) - again, I present this as just one piece of an overall larger puzzle
that humanity should realize is sitting right in front of us, and has been for
generations. It's waiting to be solved, but first you have to acknowledge its
existence.

And finally, to be fair, you did note: "You can question his motives and
intentions, but you must recognize his superior knowledge and preparedness".
So, please think of this not as a criticism of you personally, but rather as
an illustration of a larger generic principle.

~~~
broncin_buck
Thank you for your response and noble (if socially naive) pursuit of truth /
honesty.

To be honest (in return), the main intent of my post above is to inform
critical readers about the mentioned pandemic simulation that was carried out
in October of 2019, and allow them to consider for themselves what that
implies. Just informing / expanding the conversation. What people think about
BG is irrelevant to me, I just saw that it was the topic being discussed here.
:) *edit: also I deliberately took the extreme stance/tone (TRUST BILL)
because it seems obviously absurd and contradicts bigger picture critical
thinking. Speculative tone (which would've been more honest) is always
rejected as weak. So I say "Trust Bill, because x," when I actually want to
say, "are you aware of x?" By taking a stance I'm being dishonest and
inflammatory but generating discussion / thought and hopefully avoiding
censorship and outright dismissal due to existing biases. Sole intention is to
expand the overton, generate thought / discussion / awareness of fact. No one
else in these comments brought up E201 and many likely haven't heard of it,
but it is worthy of consideration and some may find it interesting!

~~~
mistermann
> Thank you for your response and noble (if socially naive) pursuit of truth /
> honesty.

Technically, it only appears to be naivete. I am _extremely_ cognizant of the
fact that people don't think using logic or facts, or care _comprehensively_
about what is actually true.

> By taking a stance I'm being dishonest and inflammatory but generating
> discussion / thought and hopefully avoiding censorship and outright
> dismissal due to existing biases. Sole intention is to expand the overton,
> generate thought / discussion / awareness of fact. No one else in these
> comments brought up E201 and many likely haven't heard of it, but it is
> worthy of consideration and some may find it interesting!

Kudos for your efforts, the more the better.

