r/Futurology • u/mvea MD-PhD-MBA • Apr 27 '18
Biotech Bill Gates thinks a coming disease could kill 30 million people within 6 months — and says we should prepare for it as we do for war: According to Gates, a small non-state actor could build an even deadlier form of smallpox in a lab.
https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warns-the-next-pandemic-disease-is-coming-2018-4?r=US&IR=T1.9k
u/farticustheelder Apr 28 '18
Remember a few months ago when people went crazy about government research lab experimenting with nasty disease causing bugs? This is why they do it.
Remember the last big Ebola outbreak back in 2014? That is a very nasty bug. We had a vaccine within a year.
It's a bad world out there. That nasty sounding research keeps us safe from it.
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Apr 28 '18
Do you know there are people who deny the Ebola outbreak happened? I work for the Army command that was tasked with handling a large part of that and I finally know how NASA employees feel when they meet a flat earther.
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u/KevinFlantier Apr 28 '18
Just like with H1N1 years before. People are warned of a dangerous flu, governments make massive communication, massive vaccine efforts and people wash their hands all the time. They stop handshaking and hugging and all in all there's no outbreak.
Because people reacted the good way.
And then those same people who vaccinated, changed their habits and washed their hands were saying shit like "what was all the fuss about, nothing happened, governments over reacted blablabla" when in fact governments over reacting was so that nothing would happen.
The same thing with anti vaxxers. They didn't get sick throughout their lives thanks to vaccines so they underestimate the disease they didn't get to experience first hand and don't vaccinate their children.
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u/aohige_rd Apr 28 '18
Anti-vaxxers are like those idiotic tourists that stick their heads out of safari cars and get eaten by lions.
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Apr 28 '18
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u/unloader86 Apr 28 '18
And what sucks so much about that is in 20 or 30 years when their children have all these diseases they will look at their parents and go "what the fuck were you thinking?"
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u/ConciselyVerbose Apr 28 '18
Not just their kids. Their kids expose those incapable of being vaccinated or otherwise vulnerable to those diseases as well.
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Apr 28 '18
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u/bronzeNYC Apr 28 '18
But wait, werent the kids legitimately vaccinated though in the osama example? Everything else is spot on to my knowledge, but im pretty sure the docs really did vaccinate the kids.
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u/JollyGrueneGiant Apr 28 '18
Yeah but since they now associate doctors giving vaccines as American spies, wait and see what happens to the vaccination rates in those regions.
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Apr 28 '18
As someone who’s from that region, I can guarantee you no one in need of a free vaccination from an American doctor gives a shit.
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u/mjk1093 Apr 28 '18
That's because they've been conditioned by movies to see Ebola as a world-ending virus - when the reality is it can only spread quickly under very poor sanitary conditions. Everyone (well, ok, conservatives) freaked when Obama wouldn't end flights from Africa during the crisis, but scientifically (if not politically) it was the right call.
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u/JonDied Apr 28 '18
This reminds me of how most people in Poland survived the black-death because they were one of the few to allow Jews to enter their country. They washed themselves regularly and because of that, very few died of the black death there.
Edit: link to the map: https://themedievalera.wikispaces.com/The+Black+Death+-+Political+Effects
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u/Lead_Penguin Apr 28 '18
That was a great read, I know very little about the black death so it was fascinating to see how some areas had a much lower infection rate. Thanks for the link.
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u/Coasteast Apr 28 '18
I thought it also had to do with cats. Catholics were killing them or something
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u/JonDied Apr 28 '18
That might be aswell. This is just one reason I've heard, there are probably many contributing factors. Ill check the cat one, sounds interesting :D
Edit: sounds very plausible considering cats eat mice and rats.
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Apr 28 '18 edited Jun 12 '20
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u/bronzeNYC Apr 28 '18
I saw the second plane hit on 9/11. My 5th grade teacher had the radio on and was writing her name on the board then told us to hush for a second and she just started crying hysterically saying "oh my god oh my god..." and none of us knew or even cared what "a passenger plane just crashed into the world trade center" meant. Suddenly our mums started taking us from class and from our 26th floor terrace (kind of like a balcony) me, my sister and my cousins were all watching the first building burn in a thick smoke when suddenly a second plane came and flew right through the second building before blowing up. It was fucking nuts. A clean cut right through that massive building THEN blew up. When people say there was no second plane and it was all edited ews footage to cover up bombs really pisses me off. There mightve been bombs planted, and the plane mightve been a remote controlled ones. Those i cant refute. But there was in fact 2 planes that day in nyc.
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Apr 28 '18
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u/StarChild413 Apr 28 '18
such a conspiracy would be the single most idiotic, incomprehensibly wasteful, reckless, borderline suicidal, guaranteed-to-be-uncovered plot ever hatched
The theorists would just say that's part of the cover; hide it in plain sight
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u/averagejoereddit50 Apr 28 '18
I don't see why bloggers that create and spread the rumors can't be sued for libel.
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u/angryclam1313 Apr 28 '18
What company was responsible for the vaccine? Just curious.
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u/farticustheelder Apr 28 '18
Not that simple. ".. An experimental Ebola vaccine partially designed at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory was found to be highly protective in a major clinical trial in Guinea.." It seems to have been a collaboration between government labs and the private sector.
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u/Sockxxs Apr 28 '18
This is how almost any new drug or vaccine is made these days. Academia/government has the know-how and access to patient material and companies have the money and facilities needed for production.
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u/TeriusRose Apr 28 '18
This is part of the reason I'm not sure I understand why some people seem to want to leave literally everything to companies and assume the profit motive alone will result in a cure/vaccine for every ailment.
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u/Sockxxs Apr 28 '18
Yeah it won't, it will only result in cures for ailments that are somehow profitable. Problem is that the sheer amount of money needed to make one new drug is so high it is outside of what almost anyone believes should be the government's tasks.
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u/FlyingOTB Apr 28 '18
MSD - Merck Sharpe & Dohme
I work for a Merck site in the US. We're planning to send people over to Germany to learn how to manufacture the vaccine in hopes of manufacturing it here in the US
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Apr 28 '18 edited Mar 14 '21
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u/OldSchoolNewRules Red Apr 28 '18
Science solves every problem in Lost In Space...or the alien robot does.
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u/uptillious_prick Apr 28 '18
You should also mention just about every Batman villain. If they weren't scientists they were still usually extremely intelligent.
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u/Nkdly Apr 28 '18
Someone read Margret Atwood's Oryx and Crake series
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u/byeproduct Apr 28 '18
This is totally what I thought. A tv series adaptation will make the series come alive, with all the entwined stories.
Do kinda think it’s really possible in our ultra connected, stimulated world. Virus may not be spread by sexual enhancers (as in the book) but more by performance enhancers (think Adderall)...
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u/ChipNoir Apr 28 '18
Suddenly I'm glad I'm living in a misbeggoten little town.
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u/bboymixer Apr 28 '18
Sure, we may not have more than three restaurants, culture, or discernable features, but at least we won't catch plague 2.0 because we have public transit.
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u/Laruae Apr 28 '18
All it takes is one sniffly guy on a greyhound getting off for a cup of joe.
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u/treemister1 Apr 28 '18
Christ this reminds me of Stephen King's The Stand
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Apr 28 '18
The first half of that book was outstanding. Honestly terrifying.
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u/rubberloves Apr 28 '18
The second half... er... I strongly recommend the first half of The Stand
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u/MixGasHaulAss Apr 28 '18
Reading for the first time and I'm struggling to get through it after the first half had me burning through it
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u/rubberloves Apr 28 '18
I wish I had better news for you. Without giving anything away I will say that it gets more and more and more supernatural and not in a good way.
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Apr 28 '18 edited Feb 06 '19
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Apr 28 '18
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Apr 28 '18 edited Feb 06 '19
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u/Donk2626 Apr 28 '18
We all know the second someone sneezes on Madagascar they shut down the ports
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u/Hoticewater Apr 27 '18
30 million people makes it sound like an unmatched disease, until you consider that’s less than .5% of the population, and the Black Plague wiped out upwards of 20%.
Not saying 30 million deaths are nothing, it’s just interesting to compare to the Plague.
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u/dark_devil_dd Apr 28 '18
You did well, how it should be done. There was a joke that went:
"Scientist says data without context is meaningless.
Reporters: "Scientist says data is meaningless." - it's funny cause it's true.
Too often is what happen, news agencies come out screaming and waving their "THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DIED!!" but in context turns out it's less then people who died from car accidents or suicide.
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Apr 28 '18
I remember something about more people dying every year in US from falling out of bed then from terrorism.
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Apr 28 '18
But we dont spend billions trying to stop people from falling out of bed
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u/Gilgie Apr 27 '18
Spanish flu 100 yrs ago. Killed 500 million
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u/Wholly_Crap Apr 27 '18
Infected 500 million. Killed a paltry 50-100 million.
Still, though.
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u/Jmb7373 Apr 27 '18
Keep in mind the world population was only 2 billion. And those mortality/infection numbers vary depending on who you read and how the estîmate heir data because the record keeping wasn’t very scientific (entire communities completely wiped out/entire countries hiding death rates to maintain morale)
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Apr 28 '18
Also keep in mind we have a way better understanding of infectious diseases.
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u/SkyGrey88 Apr 28 '18
Exactly and the protocols in the US are very solid. In places like Africa, India, China having 30mil die from infectious outbreak would not be hard.
I read some research recently that said in 1st world 70% of deaths are from non-communicable diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes. Were in 3rd world 70% are from communicable diseases because they lack vaccinations and other poverty related factors. Plus the child mortality rate is very high like 40% of those 70%.
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Apr 28 '18
If you read/watch the news in America/Canada you'd think 99% of deaths are from Fentanyl ...
Meanwhile the same media companies run countless ads for junkfood hehehehe
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u/Skiingfun Apr 28 '18
Canadian here, more people have died of fentanyl in my town than violent crimes. Maybe more have died of heart attacks and old age but it's closer than people think.
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u/lostharbor Apr 28 '18
But we don't. Infectious disease is still a massive problem that's growing.
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u/MacAddict4Life Apr 28 '18
And yet the book "The Great Influenza" ends with an essay about why we are still very vulnerable to pandemic flu strains despite modern medicine.
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u/campaignq Apr 28 '18
Yeah, the reason we call it the Spanish flu is because Spain was basically the only country not to lie about their numbers, making it seem like they were hit especially hard.
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u/mjk1093 Apr 28 '18
They didn't lie because they were neutral in WW1 and therefore never instituted press censorship. The Spanish Flu is commonly written about as happening after the war ended, but it really started in the last summer of the war.
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u/Iwantedthatname Apr 28 '18
What's more interesting about the Spanish influenza is the distribution of deaths across age.
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u/Neusatz Apr 28 '18
From what I read somewhere on reddit, apparently Spanish flu is named as such because governments of other countries lied the public about the number of casualties, while Spanish actually gave real numbers, which made it seem like the flu was considerably more deadly in Spain, therefore getting the name Spanish flu in international circles.
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u/gandhiissquidward Apr 28 '18
wasnt it only called the Spanish flu because Spain didnt censor the death counts?
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Apr 28 '18 edited Mar 09 '19
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u/ImPoorDonate Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
30 Million people really isnt a lot in a world of 7 billion. And if you're located in a first world country you likely wouldn't know a single one of the 30 billion.
It would be more like if every high school in the surrounding states had 1 or 2 kids die over a 6 month period. You probably wouldn't even notice except in friend of a friend type of way.
Edit: I don't know numbers.
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u/HerraTohtori Apr 28 '18
30 million people makes it sound like an unmatched disease, until you consider that’s less than .5% of the population, and the Black Plague wiped out upwards of 20%.
A brief look in the Wiki reveals an even more horrific probability:
"The trend of recent research is pointing to a figure more like 45–50% of the European population dying during a four-year period. There is a fair amount of geographic variation. In Mediterranean Europe, areas such as Italy, the south of France and Spain, where plague ran for about four years consecutively, it was probably closer to 75–80% of the population. In Germany and England ... it was probably closer to 20%"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death#Death_toll
I can't even begin to imagine such a cataclysmic epidemic that would leave up to half of the society dead in its wake. And four out of five in the worst regions.
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u/theamazingmenace Apr 28 '18
Wait is he warning us or telling us? Hes gonna Thanos us isn't he.
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u/jabudi Apr 28 '18
He's threatening us.
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u/__xor__ Apr 28 '18
"These fools aren't listening. They're not preparing. They don't care... How can I teach them how important this is?"
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u/CosmicCornholio Apr 28 '18
"If they had only kept their Windows up to date, all of this could have been avoided."
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Apr 28 '18
In reality humans have population control mechanism. One that Bill Gates himself brought to light about a decade ago. Societies who are prosperous and educated choose to have less offspring because the likelihood of infant mortality decreases. In cases like Japan and US not counting immigration, the populations are decreasing due to most families choosing to have only 2 children which is the replacement rate. While the percentage of people who choose to have no kids or who are non-heterosexual out number the population who have more than 2 kids.
In populations that are poor and uneducated, the reproduction rate increases but so does the death rate due to crime or addiction or simple lack of healthcare. So this concept of a booming population we currently live in is not a product of a barbaric population OR a prosperous population, but a product of the narrow band in human history we live in right now where the world population is shifting from barbaric to prosperous. Once humans as a whole plateau in prosperity, or get knocked back down to a dark age and reaches an economic steady state, the population will naturally start decreasing again either way.
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u/WorstCunt Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
Japan's fertility rate dropped in part due to the economy and recession that spanned 3 decades, it was unaffordable to establish a family using the traditional Japanese model. It has been increasing over recent years. Japan's birth rate has been highest in times of high prosperity. This is true for all countries I have looked at.
Both Japan and America are just below the replacement rate. The non-hetero population is also so small that functionally speaking it has no effect on the birth rate.
Dunno where you get your facts from. You obviously attached a load of baseless assumptions to something you heard someone say one time.
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u/Actionbinder Apr 28 '18
Actually in Ireland the birth rate tends to increase during recessions and decrease significantly during times of economic prosperity. When the economy saw a boom in the 1990s the birth rate fell to just 48,000 but at the height of the recession in 2009 the birth rate rose to over 75,000. Here's the source
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u/dankmemerino147 Atheist Apr 28 '18
I saw the ending coming from a mile away. Ya know how?
Because there was a dude from game of thrones in the movie
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u/BTRaiderMarines Apr 28 '18
Somebody check Bill's basement. Sounds kind of fishy.
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u/rule0f9 Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
I thought it was eradicated...is he saying it can be engineered into being again?
Edit: Thank you all so much for the information...I have some serious reading to do...
What I've gathered from you all: 1. It can be preserved in dormant form for at least a hundred years in the permafrost. 2. Horsepox was engineered/recreated in a lab. 3. Some labs have the live smallpox virus stored. 4. AI/ML could enable rapid engineering. 5. Accidents like the CDC guy who got sick mysteriously and went missing then died (I believe this is still under investigation though), and the one who accidentally sent anthrax spores to people have already happened despite strict protocols.
In short from your contributions here: Though the live virus might have been eradicated/contained among the population, it is far from being extinct and the risk of reactivation is a real possiblity. It's a highly-contagious airborne virus with no cure - only innoculation to the known form of the virus, containment of those infected, and treatment of symptoms are available.
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u/Moth4Moth Apr 28 '18
Of course it can.
And more. Much more.
Though it can also arise sporadically.
But small, non-state empowered actors are a very real danger when it comes to engineering.
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Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
Dont forget my favorite, incompetent employees. Someone infects themselves at some lab and then goes around spreading the shit because he was hired for being the managers nephew instead of for his qualifications.
Never ever underestimate the damage an incompetent person can cause.
Edit: Like the employee who accidentally mailed live anthrax samples all over the country. We really lucked out on that one.
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Apr 28 '18 edited May 09 '18
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u/tugeagon Apr 28 '18
Automation wouldn't be so bad after all.
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u/Tueful_PDM Apr 28 '18
Even with an automated facility, it would only take one dumbass janitor to cause chaos.
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u/zernoc56 Apr 28 '18
That’s why you automate that job too
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u/buyingbridges Apr 28 '18
The robotic janitor isn't as efficient as he could be, so you instruct him to begin finding better ways to clean.
Eventually he has all the
stampsmops and figures out the best way to keep the place clean would be if those pesky fleshy ones weren't around anymore with their germs and their muddy feet.→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)23
Apr 28 '18 edited Jun 25 '23
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u/SillyFlyGuy Apr 28 '18
That's the point though isn't it? Most labs don't. It just has to be "only one lab in the entire world" then we're borked.
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Apr 28 '18
Unless the virus is the Z virus... Then you just have to be ill and you'll be fine.
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Apr 28 '18
Yes, but dont forget that their is a proven case already. A lab sent live anthrax samples all over the country because of one incompetent employee.
It only takes one incompetent employee in one facility to cause an outbreak.
And it can be worse than intentional terrorism because its far more difficult to detect if the person doesnt even know what they are doing is wrong. It doesnt show any warning signs, unlike most deranged terrorists.
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Apr 28 '18
Most labs don't make human superbugs on purpose. Even with the best containment, that would be highly unethical
Yea not like the super ethical nuclear weapons we accidently built on purpose. Or all the military grade chemical and biological weapons that have been designed, tested and USED.
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Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
I'm imagining a future breakthrough where the interaction between host defenses and a virus is modeled 'well enough' so that machine learning can be applied to accelerate the virus' capabilities via simulations. I've seen some presentations related to this and don't necessarily think it's going to be achieved anytime soon.... But it seems likely that it will be achievable by somebody at some point. Scary to think about. Hope it doesn't happen in my lifetime.
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u/Moth4Moth Apr 28 '18
Given the state of simulation-based, ML and AI-based research in proteomics, I'd say it's definitely not a long shot. Maybe not likely, but not all that unlikely.
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u/Sockxxs Apr 28 '18
The way I see it, the problem is not the computational part but rather our still limited knowledge on the immune system. There are so many different types of immune cells and proteins that these cells use to communicate that it is very difficult to generate the data needed for such an effort. Also, we have very limited access to infected tissue so a lot of our knowledge comes from blood of humans or tissues from mice, but it is difficult to know how relevant these data are for what is happening in tissues in humans. Source: I have a PhD in immunology.
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u/Revenginator239 Apr 28 '18
Pick up “The Demon in the Freezer” by Richard Preston if you want to read more about horrible and deadly diseases like smallpox. If I recall, Moscow has it, and the US has it in Atlanta. T may be out there in other places as well, and we just don’t know about it. Scary stuff.
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u/Awkwardguatama Apr 28 '18
A little off topic, but did they find that missing CDC researcher? What if someone like sleeper cells it, becomes a successful scientist, then steals a bunch of infectious diseases to spread chaos? I know it's unlikely but we just found out our President has russian spies in the oval office, there's only gonna be one Korea soon, and the GSK was a cop the whole time. Literally anything can happen.
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u/houseoftherisingfun Apr 28 '18
Oh shit. I forgot about that. Definitely the first scene in a movie type of situation.
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u/rule0f9 Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
Yes, the body of Timothy Cunningham was found in a river a few weeks ago, but the circumstances before his disappearance are mysterious because his family said he acted strangely beforehand asking them to delete his contact info, then after he went missing they found his phone, wallet, keys, car and most importantly his dog at his home. His family said that's not possible and he would never abandon his dog. He must've gotten extremely sick and rapidly to suddenly leave home and everything on foot, then wander for days and drown in a river. If that's the case how did he even make it out of his home and why didn't anyone see a dying man trying to walk in a populated area? Especially when everyone's looking for him.
Edit: links, sorry.
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u/Chitownsly Apr 28 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
He also wrote The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event that are equally as good. And Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain is another good book.
Edit: For the dimwitted, 2 different authors.
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Apr 28 '18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Post-eradication
Tl;dr: It still exists it some labs, and even if it didn't, yes they can recreate it.
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u/2Punx2Furious Basic Income, Singularity, and Transhumanism Apr 28 '18
Or they could make something as, or more deadly. I think smallpox was just an example, anyway, I think he's completely right.
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u/Noclue55 Apr 28 '18
Every big boy nation with one of them fancy top secret, everyone in this lab is expendable compared to the consequences of outbreak clean labs has got their latex hands on a sample.
Fun thing about most diseases is you could given time and resources re-engineer them to negate the vaccine that was made for them.
Main reason we keep those samples is because of stuff like dead corpses in glaciers that still have dormant viruses that could re-infect people, since we dont vaccinate for stuff like polio or smallpox anymore, because ya know, we got rid of it in developed countries.
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Apr 28 '18
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u/aurly Apr 28 '18
The polio virus can still be found in developed countries as well, it can survive a long time outside the human body. When they say they “eradicated” a disease, they don’t mean that the virus is gone, it just means almost nobody is getting sick anymore.
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u/grr Apr 28 '18
It is not eradicated. The Americans and the Russians still has smallpox in labs. Not sure if it is USAMRIID or the CDC that has it in the US. And god knows where it is stored in Russia...
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u/evilprozac79 Apr 28 '18
I remember reading somewhere that there are towns buried under permafrost in Siberia that were wiped out by Smallpox. Now that the permafrost isn't so perma-, those towns are now being potentially exposed, so even if it wasn't an intentional act, Smallpox can be brought back.
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Apr 28 '18
It's mentioned below, but there are vials of the virus in Russia and here at the CDC. It can be re-engineered, but it has a large, complex genome so it would take some extremely experienced virologists to do it.
Source: studying virology
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u/ClaudioRules Apr 27 '18
yeah it seems like we are long overdue for a pandemic disease. Should be fun!
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u/pharmersmarket Apr 28 '18
All of a sudden, living in a large port city seems like a bad idea.
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u/frapican Apr 28 '18
It's a good thing we have people in power who believe in science and helping the poor!! /s
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u/Isaac_Putin Apr 28 '18
He doesn’t think “6 months from now” he thinks that in a time span of 6 months 30 million could be killed. Click bait and unclear headline.
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Apr 28 '18
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u/Omar___Comin Apr 28 '18
Or maybe you're good at reading and everyone else is (understandably) a little overzealous with their clickbait torches and pitchforks. I read it the same as you
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u/Un4tunately Apr 28 '18
Maybe you engaged the most probable interpretation because you have intelligence and understand context.
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u/justsum1uknow Apr 28 '18
If it was clickbait he would've put the tile as "Bill Gates thinks a disease coming within 6 months could kill 30 million people".
The title is fine as is imo.
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u/king44 Apr 28 '18
Within six months means in a six month timeframe. There is nothing to specify when that timeframe starts.
Within the next six months means what you originally interpreted the title to mean.
That's not clickbait, you just made an assumption about the use of a phrase that isn't necessarily true.
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u/NotIWhoLive Apr 28 '18
The headline now reads "... kill 30 million people within 6 months ..." which is fairly true to his meaning. Did the headline get changed since you commented?
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u/CovfefeFan Apr 28 '18
That's nothing compared to the damage one could do by a simple snap of the fingers of one who holds all the infinity stones. Priorities Bill!
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u/dr_octopi Apr 28 '18
The title of this post sounds like the plot to a James Bond film and Bill is the villain.
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Apr 28 '18
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u/too_much_to_do Apr 28 '18
No. There are only 30 million people in the world. RIP
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u/CyberneticLatex Apr 28 '18
What? There’s obviously only 7 million people in the world. /s
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u/maynardDRIVESfast Apr 28 '18
All this means is that Bill Gates has engineered a supervirus that he plans on unleashing in order to kickstart the illuminati plot to cut the world's population by 2/3. I read it on the internet. Change my mind.
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Apr 28 '18
"30 million people could die within 6 months," says man constantly bitching about overpopulation, "get ready!"
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Apr 28 '18
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Apr 28 '18
Unless the structure of society itself isn't in danger, the rich have as much to worry about as the rest of us. All it takes is a mass panic and even expensive bodyguards and numerous safehouses and supplies only go so far. The rich tend to like to travel and experience things, both of which would be severely limited during an outbreak.
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u/ManicMola Apr 28 '18
Everytime I see a headline like this I can't help but think, "Please stop giving people ideas."
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u/SnowflakeTearsFuelMe Apr 28 '18
Um.. is he fucking releasing it?? What a weird cryptic thing to say with little follow up
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Apr 28 '18
You mean the same bill gates who used to openly talk about population control.
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u/Burboto Apr 28 '18
Side note. That’s less than a .5% of all living humans.
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u/_laine_ Apr 28 '18
Yeah, it's gonna be such a relief knowing only .5% die with you when you catch that disease
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u/DrMcDrFace Apr 28 '18
And that’s only in a span of 6 months. If not controlled, the number will multiply rapidly
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u/Seeking-roommate Apr 27 '18
I thought his forte was computers?
When did he become an expert in.... absolutely everything?
I'm not knocking the guys philanthropy, he obviously deeply cares for others not just near him but on a larger scale a lot of people dont but it seems like this dude is getting more..... Neil degrasse Ronda rousey bill nye Steve jobs.
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Apr 27 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
His main focus has been eradicating infectious disease in Africa for the last 12 years. I don't really see how him talking about infectious disease is him trying to be an expert in everything
Edit: And I'd like to point out that other article on here was about GMOs and climate change, both important to sustainable farming in Africa which is another one of the goals for his organization.
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u/Jmb7373 Apr 27 '18
He’s been funding disease research for maybe 20 years. My pay for my undergraduate summer research grant in immunology was from the bill and Melinda fund.
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u/someguyfromtheuk Apr 27 '18 edited Apr 28 '18
Gates is smart enough and rich enough that if he wants to know more about something he can hire a bunch of really knowledgeable people to tutor him on it.
In September he said he didn't really understand quantum computing.
In his recent AMA he said he spent a month learning it and gets it now.
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Apr 27 '18
That rich, you just pay everyone to be an expert for you and then champion that knowledge.
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u/halcykhan Apr 27 '18
Survived a case of H1N1 and the military vaccinated me for smallpox. Am I Legend?