If there’s one name that keeps coming up in relation to the coronavirus, it’s Bill Gates, and a fake post is now circulating through social media. Additionally, there’s a YouTube video of him predicting the next pandemic five years ago, and scammers are using his name to try to extort millions in a new bitcoin scheme. For whatever reason, Bill Gates is trending right now, and some are trying to take advantage of that.
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The problem right now is that there are several stories about Bill Gates going around, and not all of them are true. The videos in which he predicted a global pandemic are real and using digital certificates (or microchips) to fight it, but the Bill Gates coronavirus post that's going around social media is not.
In the fake Bill Gates coronavirus post, he supposedly issued a lengthy message about what COVID-19 is teaching us. The post claims he believes "that there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens, whether that is what we perceive as being good or being bad."
The fake Bill Gates coronavirus post also expresses warm thoughts like how COVID-19 is showing us that everyone is equal, no matter our culture, religion, occupation, financial situation or level of fame. It also states that the virus shows us that we're all connected and reminds us of how precious our health is. The post also states that COVID-19 reminds us how short life is.
If you've been tricked by the fake Bill Gates coronavirus post and have shared it on your social media accounts, don't worry. You are far from alone on that. Even celebrities have been duped and sharing it on their social networking accounts.
Bill Gates predicted a global pandemic
On the other hand, the videos in which Bill Gates predicted a global pandemic are genuine. One of the most popular videos that's been going around lately is from a TED Talk he gave five years ago. However, he has talked about the possibility of a global pandemic in the years since then.
In the TED Talk in March 2015, Gates said the "greatest risk of global catastrophe" was the flu virus or some other "highly infectious virus."
"If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it's most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war," he said. "Not missiles, but microbes. Now, part of the reason for this is that we have invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents. But we've actually invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic."
He argued in 2015 that the world wasn't ready for the next epidemic. He highlighted the Ebola virus as an example of how the medical system isn't prepared for an epidemic. However, he also said there were three reasons the Ebola virus didn't spread further than it did.
One of those reasons is because by the time people were contagious, they were so sick that they were bedridden. That isn't the case with the coronavirus. Some people test positive for the virus and may be spreading it to others even though they don't have any symptoms.
Another reason is because Ebola didn't spread into well-populated areas, but the coronavirus did from the very beginning. The epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, is home to millions of people. He also called the actions of the involved medical personnel "heroic."
You can watch the Bill Gates video in its entirety here:
There are also other videos in which the Microsoft co-founder warned about the possibility of a global pandemic. In 2017 in an interview with CBS News, he announced the launch of his Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. That video also made it onto YouTube.
In a 2018 interview with STAT, which was also posted on YouTube, he talked about his fear of a global pandemic. Again, he talked about how a global pandemic could claim more than 10 million lives.
Based on the comments we're seeing on these years-old videos, many people are seeing a conspiracy and suggesting that Gates engineered the coronavirus so he could sell vaccines. The false rumors about Gates supposedly holding a patent for the virus certainly haven't helped any.
