Bill Gates is concerned about the conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid pandemic19. He warns that they could harm public health.
In an interview with Politico's Playbook, Bill Gates states that "when misinformation or misleading information is spread, it can lead to death."
"To some extent, I understand why they happen," he said, citing the pandemic as the cause.
"We are living in an unprecedented crisis right now. "People are anxious and it is tempting to look for simple explanations." "But when misinformation or misleading information is spread, it can lead to death. "We all need to look for ways to work together and save lives," said Bill Gates.
Gates had expressed fears of a pandemic since 2015, speaking publicly and calling on humanity to prepare for such a eventuality. Now, he talks about two more threats. "If there's one thing that could kill more than ten million people in the next few decades, it's very likely to be an infectious virus, not a war," he told Ted Talk, adding: "Not ballistic missiles, but germs."
The video of this speech started circulating widely in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic had already broken out.
Bill Gates: Coronavirus, Climate Change and Bioterrorism
A few days ago, in an interview with Derek Muller, creator of Veritasium, a famous - scientific content - YouTube channel, Bill Gates said that he does not feel good at all with his prediction. "There can be no positive feeling (saying) something like this: I was telling you," Gates said, adding, "Could I have been more convincing?"
Muller asked Gates how he was so sure of a pandemic five years ago.
"There are several respiratory viruses and from time to time someone shows up. "Respiratory diseases are very frightening as we are still passengers on a plane or a bus even though we are infected," he said. At the same time, Bill Gates was called to speak about the next threats that humanity will face and is not prepared for them. The American businessman and philanthropist spoke of two threats: climate change and bioterrorism. "The first is climate change. "Every year the death toll will be higher than that of the pandemic," Gates said, adding that he felt people were reluctant to discuss the second threat. Speaking about bioterrorism, Gates argued that humans can now easily create a deadly virus and are more likely to have to deal with such viruses than to deal with naturally occurring epidemics such as COVID-19. He added that if a catastrophe like the one occurred, the human species would probably count a higher number of deaths than the current pandemic. And since it is man-made, it will likely happen every year. With the world already facing an ongoing pandemic, will people be able to stop the next one? According to Gates, the answer is no. There will be more pandemics, says the head of Microsoft.