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Topics: Bill Gates, Coronavirus, US News, Technology, Science
Claire Reid
Topics: Bill Gates, Coronavirus, US News, Technology, Science
Bill Gates has said it’s ‘somewhat ironic’ that people say his foundation is using vaccines to kill people when they’ve helped to save millions of lives.
The Microsoft founder hit out at those who accuse his life-saving vaccine work of having nefarious intentions.
Gates was in Vancouver, Canada, to give a TED talk about how the population can help avoid another pandemic.
Anti-vaxxers have shared unfounded theories claiming Gates has malicious intentions, with conspiracy theories claiming the billionaire is attempting to implant microchips into people and others claiming he played a part in creating Covid-19.
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Gates was asked how he felt about these protests and admitted it was ‘kind of weird’.
He said: "The Gates Foundation is very involved in vaccines, the invention of new vaccines, funding vaccines, and we're very proud that, through joint efforts like Gavi, that saved tens of millions of lives.
"So it's somewhat ironic to have somebody turn around and say we're using vaccines to kill people or to make money or we started the pandemic."
Gates went on: "Does this turn into something where there's constantly crazy people showing up? Who knows."
Speaking at TED2022, Insider reports, Gates also addressed the bizarre conspiracy theory that he wanted to implant chips into the general public.
He said: "I somehow wanna track the location of individuals because I'm so deeply desirous to know where everybody is. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with that information.
He added: "Hopefully, as the pandemic calms down, people are more rational about, 'Hey, vaccines are a miracle and there's a lot more we can do'."
This isn’t the first time Gates has addressed the baffling conspiracy theories, earlier this year during an interview with Professor Devi Sridhar, head of the Global Health Governance Programme, Gates said he couldn’t understand why people would think he would want to track them in the first place.
“People like you and I and Tony Fauci have been subject to a lot of misinformation,” he said.
“I didn’t expect that. Some of it, like me putting chips in arms, doesn’t make sense to me – why would I want to do that?”
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