Bill Gates is an inspiration to many, and when the history of tech is written, he will go down as one of the legends who enabled our digital world.?
From what he has managed to achieve and accomplish in the tech world to what he is doing today in the world of philanthropy, his level of dedication and participation seems unprecedented.?
However, recently he has been surrounded by a bunch of conspiracy theories, some claiming that it was Bill Gates who is actually behind the COVID-19 pandemic.?
A recent report by Forbes revealed that conspiracy theorists think Gates owns the ¡°patent¡± for the SARS-CoV2, a virus that only surfaced in January 2020, and that this entire pandemic thing is just to create a need for a vaccine from which Gates will subsequently profit from.?
These posts claim that The Pirbright Institute, in Surrey, England has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which owns the patent for this new coronavirus. However, the report further clarifies that the patent is actually for a different coronavirus, one that mainly affects chickens, not the SARS-CoV2.?
Recently, on Bill Gate¡¯s Instagram post where he thanked the medical healthcare workers on the frontline trying to contain the pandemic, comments were flooded with people who were blaming him for actually staring this.?
This felt exactly like punching the person in the face, who is actually trying to help. As of now, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged over $300 million to fight COVID-19 pandemic.?
Since the inception of the foundation, as of 2018, the foundation has donated over $50 billion to several charities -- that¡¯s nearly half his valuation of $102 billion.?
He has contributed towards helping in eradicating Polio from countries like Africa, India and others. The foundation has also been working tirelessly to combatting cases of Malaria in South East Asia among several other efforts.
The spike in posts against Bill Gates surfaced after he spoke about Donald Trump cutting the WHO¡¯s funding. His tweet got over 45,000 comments, with the Twitter account being mentioned more than 270,000 times in the 24 hour period.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said in a statement, "We¡¯re concerned about the conspiracy theories being spread online and the damage they could cause to public health. At a time like this, when the world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis, it¡¯s distressing that there are people spreading misinformation when we should all be looking for ways to collaborate and save lives. Right now, one of the best things we can do to stop the spread of COVID-19 is spread the facts."
Does this man, who today is one of the biggest philanthropists and has done so much, deserve such hatred and fake backlash? Let us know what you think in the comments below