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Is Bill Gates an elected official? Is he a medical doctor? Sorry, I understand that he means well, but we need more democratic engagement and less opinions fro

Is Bill Gates an elected official? Is he a medical doctor? Sorry, I understand that he means well, but we need more democratic engagement and less opinions from billionaire industrialists.

Havoc 7y ago
He played a big part in polio eradication efforts. I’d say he has some credibility to speak on this
- catalogia 7y ago
  Did he do more in that effort than play the role of the big wallet?
  - mbreese 7y ago
    When you spend that kind of money on an effort, you don't just write a check and forget about it. He's been known to be very hands on in his global healthcare efforts.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      It's not like he's been to medical school, or has he? So far all I've seen, including your comment, boils down to "Trust him, he's rich."
      - mbreese 7y ago
        It's not "he's rich". It's that he has been actively engaged with all the research programs that he's funded. Global health philanthropy has been his primary job for over a decade. When you're working with experts in the field for that long, you do learn a thing or two. Seriously, you're picking the wrong argument here. Now, if Gates had started talking about rainforest conservation efforts in South America (random topic), he'd have little authority. But on this specific topic, he does.
        catalogia 7y ago
        Loads of people have been engaged with the programs Bill Gates has funded, including a great many doctors. Bill Gates doesn't have some unique level of experience dealing with organizations addressing these matters, and a great many people dealing with these organizations seem to have more expertise in the matter than Bill Gates. > Global health philanthropy has been his primary job for over a decade Key word there being philanthropy, e.g. he's rich. Instead of listening to the guy with the wallet, we'd be better off listening to the people who actually put Bill Gates' money to use with their actual expertise in matters other than being rich.
- ceilingcorner 7y ago
  He is the second-richest person in the world and has virtually nothing to lose from a nationwide shutdown or the unpredictable cascading effects that will come from it. The other 327 million people have a lot to lose.
- gnulinux 7y ago
  His part was paying experts who know how to deal with infectious diseases to eradicate polio. Don't get me wrong, he's an awesome person, and we should all be thankful to him for helping. But I agree with GP that we need more democratic engagement and less opinions from billionaires. It just so happens that we think Bill Gates is a good person and listening to him due to his billions ends up being good. This is clearly not always the case, so taking someone's opinion just because they're immensely rich is a slippery slope. EDIT: As a disclaimer, I agree with him on this, we need a national shut down.
  - emiliobumachar 7y ago
    He's presumably still paying experts who know how to deal with infectious diseases, and listening to them.
- numair 7y ago
  This is an almost offensive statement to anyone familiar with the life and philosophies of Jonas Salk, who came up with the polio vaccine. He actively worked to avoid enriching himself, and avoid becoming a billionaire industrialist, by refusing to patent the cure.
solarengineer 7y ago
He has the credibility of keeping himself informed and of acting on that information using his own money.
- murph-almighty 7y ago
  I agreed with you at first but that argument could also be used to justify malicious behavior- e.g. I'm a fossil fuel executive who knows that fossil fuels are dying so I'm going to delay that as much as possible by using my money to lobby for pro-oil candidates. Regardless, I think the OP of this thread is not giving Bill as much credit as he deserves- running and funding an international global health effort is not a simple task and I wouldn't be shocked if he was better at handling public health issues than writing code now.
baq 7y ago
he's spent years fighting with polio. i'd say he's way more qualified to say that than you're qualified to say he isn't.
shahbaby 7y ago
Because the officials have done such a great job so far? Bill Gates has literally been warning us about this for years.
- djsumdog 7y ago
  Which makes his views very bias. Italy's numbers finally seem to be turning down. South Korea, Japan and Germany haven't seen the same growth. ICUs in America are filling up, but so far I haven't heard reports of them being over capacity. The thing is, people are going to die no matter what. There is no vaccine. You could catch this thing tomorrow or in August, but if you're one of the unlucky ones with the overactive immune response, you could get immediate care, be looked after in an ICU and still die. I understand they don't want everyone to catch this at once, but if most places are able to keep up now, is shutting down the country preemptively really a good idea?
Cantbekhan 7y ago
He totally saw this coming from a mile away and actively tried to warn the world about it. Years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI
ctvo 7y ago
He runs the largest private foundation in the world. A part of their work is combating infectious diseases. Disregarding his informed opinion because of his wealth is petty.
AndrewGaspar 7y ago
1) Bill Gates doesn't have any governmental power - he's stating his opinion and hoping it will be heeded. 2) Bill Gates probably knows better than most medical doctors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Global_health_division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat...
youeseh 7y ago
If you're asking if he has domain expertise in fighting rapidly spreading diseases, then yes, he has domain expertise in fighting rapidly spreading diseases.
jdavis703 7y ago
Last Friday a very senior elected US official in charge of agencies like the CDC, FDA & HHS said COVID was just the “flu”? A month or two ago this same official described it as a “hoax.” Other more junior officials spent weeks saying masks were ineffective. Suddenly those same officials are now calling for certain workers to be protected with masks, and are mulling recommending all Americans wear masks. At this point why should we trust expert or official opinion over any other crank?
bo1024 7y ago
He has access to top medical experts. I saw a talk from him once where he described access to experts to explain things to him as one of the biggest perks of his position. I'm also a bit skeptical that Americans elected officials making decisions is much related to "democratic engagement"...
dgritsko 7y ago
Gates gave a prescient TED talk in 2015 [1] in which he describes the risk of a global pandemic and the general lack of preparedness. The Gates foundation has also been working for years to help eradicate diseases like polio and malaria [2][3]. Given his expertise in this area, it would seem worthwhile to listen to what he has to say rather than dismissing him as just a "billionaire industrialist." [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI [2]: https://fortune.com/2018/04/18/bill-gates-foundation-malaria/ https://fortune.com/2018/04/18/bill-gates-foundation-malaria... [3]: https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-letter-eradicate-four-diseases-2015-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-letter-eradicate-...
PaulRobinson 7y ago
Given that Bill Gates has spent years now working on polio eradication, who do you think might understand this better? The President, Republican politicians, anchors on Fox News, or Bill Gates? Who is getting the most public mindshare right now? Nobody should be comfortable with the honest answers, and when this is all done, perhaps it's time for America to "talk that over" at the ballot box and by turning off cable news.
em500 7y ago
No, but he's a chairman of a well-endowed foundation (BMGF) that probably had more experience managing responses to contagious virus epidemics than most elected officials. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-gates/bill-gates-says-zika-response-better-than-for-ebola-idUSKCN0VW08S https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-gates/bill-ga...
chrismarlow9 7y ago
he's using his status to evangelize. of course bill Gates is smart enough to know that he doesn't know everything. I would not be surprised at all if he's simply parroting one of those experts. let me put it another way. if he had the experts come out and say things instead of himself, i doubt it would be on the front page here. this is why people have celebrities endorse their causes
kawfey 7y ago
As many conspiracy theorists have lamented, he's an unelected world leader. Which is true - his philanthropic investments drive a lot of progress in the world of energy and public health. He is a gifted human in his ability to consume knowledge from books and people. If you listen to his interviews with professionals (in the medical and energy fields) it sounds like he himself is a professional in the field himself because he has a deep base of knowledge in fields that he pursues. In many scenarios, the hive mind of democracy is not the best solution. He's right, and not the only person saying that a complete shutdown will stop COVID-19 dead. Its just that the economic and civil effects of a total shutdown are untenable for republics and otherwise representative governments to mandate.

Is Bill Gates an elected official? Is he a medical doctor? Sorry, I understand that he means well, but we need more democratic engagement and less opinions from billionaire industrialists.

Havoc 7y ago

He played a big part in polio eradication efforts. I’d say he has some credibility to speak on this

catalogia 7y ago
Did he do more in that effort than play the role of the big wallet?
- mbreese 7y ago
  When you spend that kind of money on an effort, you don't just write a check and forget about it. He's been known to be very hands on in his global healthcare efforts.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    It's not like he's been to medical school, or has he? So far all I've seen, including your comment, boils down to "Trust him, he's rich."
    - mbreese 7y ago
      It's not "he's rich". It's that he has been actively engaged with all the research programs that he's funded. Global health philanthropy has been his primary job for over a decade. When you're working with experts in the field for that long, you do learn a thing or two. Seriously, you're picking the wrong argument here. Now, if Gates had started talking about rainforest conservation efforts in South America (random topic), he'd have little authority. But on this specific topic, he does.
      - catalogia 7y ago
        Loads of people have been engaged with the programs Bill Gates has funded, including a great many doctors. Bill Gates doesn't have some unique level of experience dealing with organizations addressing these matters, and a great many people dealing with these organizations seem to have more expertise in the matter than Bill Gates. > Global health philanthropy has been his primary job for over a decade Key word there being philanthropy, e.g. he's rich. Instead of listening to the guy with the wallet, we'd be better off listening to the people who actually put Bill Gates' money to use with their actual expertise in matters other than being rich.
ceilingcorner 7y ago
He is the second-richest person in the world and has virtually nothing to lose from a nationwide shutdown or the unpredictable cascading effects that will come from it. The other 327 million people have a lot to lose.
gnulinux 7y ago
His part was paying experts who know how to deal with infectious diseases to eradicate polio. Don't get me wrong, he's an awesome person, and we should all be thankful to him for helping. But I agree with GP that we need more democratic engagement and less opinions from billionaires. It just so happens that we think Bill Gates is a good person and listening to him due to his billions ends up being good. This is clearly not always the case, so taking someone's opinion just because they're immensely rich is a slippery slope. EDIT: As a disclaimer, I agree with him on this, we need a national shut down.
- emiliobumachar 7y ago
  He's presumably still paying experts who know how to deal with infectious diseases, and listening to them.
numair 7y ago
This is an almost offensive statement to anyone familiar with the life and philosophies of Jonas Salk, who came up with the polio vaccine. He actively worked to avoid enriching himself, and avoid becoming a billionaire industrialist, by refusing to patent the cure.

solarengineer 7y ago

He has the credibility of keeping himself informed and of acting on that information using his own money.

murph-almighty 7y ago
I agreed with you at first but that argument could also be used to justify malicious behavior- e.g. I'm a fossil fuel executive who knows that fossil fuels are dying so I'm going to delay that as much as possible by using my money to lobby for pro-oil candidates. Regardless, I think the OP of this thread is not giving Bill as much credit as he deserves- running and funding an international global health effort is not a simple task and I wouldn't be shocked if he was better at handling public health issues than writing code now.

baq 7y ago

he's spent years fighting with polio. i'd say he's way more qualified to say that than you're qualified to say he isn't.

shahbaby 7y ago

Because the officials have done such a great job so far? Bill Gates has literally been warning us about this for years.

djsumdog 7y ago
Which makes his views very bias. Italy's numbers finally seem to be turning down. South Korea, Japan and Germany haven't seen the same growth. ICUs in America are filling up, but so far I haven't heard reports of them being over capacity. The thing is, people are going to die no matter what. There is no vaccine. You could catch this thing tomorrow or in August, but if you're one of the unlucky ones with the overactive immune response, you could get immediate care, be looked after in an ICU and still die. I understand they don't want everyone to catch this at once, but if most places are able to keep up now, is shutting down the country preemptively really a good idea?

Cantbekhan 7y ago

He totally saw this coming from a mile away and actively tried to warn the world about it. Years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI

ctvo 7y ago

He runs the largest private foundation in the world. A part of their work is combating infectious diseases. Disregarding his informed opinion because of his wealth is petty.

AndrewGaspar 7y ago

1) Bill Gates doesn't have any governmental power - he's stating his opinion and hoping it will be heeded. 2) Bill Gates probably knows better than most medical doctors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Global_health_division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat...

youeseh 7y ago

If you're asking if he has domain expertise in fighting rapidly spreading diseases, then yes, he has domain expertise in fighting rapidly spreading diseases.

jdavis703 7y ago

Last Friday a very senior elected US official in charge of agencies like the CDC, FDA & HHS said COVID was just the “flu”? A month or two ago this same official described it as a “hoax.” Other more junior officials spent weeks saying masks were ineffective. Suddenly those same officials are now calling for certain workers to be protected with masks, and are mulling recommending all Americans wear masks. At this point why should we trust expert or official opinion over any other crank?

bo1024 7y ago

He has access to top medical experts. I saw a talk from him once where he described access to experts to explain things to him as one of the biggest perks of his position. I'm also a bit skeptical that Americans elected officials making decisions is much related to "democratic engagement"...

dgritsko 7y ago

Gates gave a prescient TED talk in 2015 [1] in which he describes the risk of a global pandemic and the general lack of preparedness. The Gates foundation has also been working for years to help eradicate diseases like polio and malaria [2][3]. Given his expertise in this area, it would seem worthwhile to listen to what he has to say rather than dismissing him as just a "billionaire industrialist." [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI [2]: https://fortune.com/2018/04/18/bill-gates-foundation-malaria/ https://fortune.com/2018/04/18/bill-gates-foundation-malaria... [3]: https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-letter-eradicate-four-diseases-2015-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-letter-eradicate-...

PaulRobinson 7y ago

Given that Bill Gates has spent years now working on polio eradication, who do you think might understand this better? The President, Republican politicians, anchors on Fox News, or Bill Gates? Who is getting the most public mindshare right now? Nobody should be comfortable with the honest answers, and when this is all done, perhaps it's time for America to "talk that over" at the ballot box and by turning off cable news.

em500 7y ago

No, but he's a chairman of a well-endowed foundation (BMGF) that probably had more experience managing responses to contagious virus epidemics than most elected officials. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-gates/bill-gates-says-zika-response-better-than-for-ebola-idUSKCN0VW08S https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-gates/bill-ga...

chrismarlow9 7y ago

he's using his status to evangelize. of course bill Gates is smart enough to know that he doesn't know everything. I would not be surprised at all if he's simply parroting one of those experts. let me put it another way. if he had the experts come out and say things instead of himself, i doubt it would be on the front page here. this is why people have celebrities endorse their causes

kawfey 7y ago

As many conspiracy theorists have lamented, he's an unelected world leader. Which is true - his philanthropic investments drive a lot of progress in the world of energy and public health. He is a gifted human in his ability to consume knowledge from books and people. If you listen to his interviews with professionals (in the medical and energy fields) it sounds like he himself is a professional in the field himself because he has a deep base of knowledge in fields that he pursues. In many scenarios, the hive mind of democracy is not the best solution. He's right, and not the only person saying that a complete shutdown will stop COVID-19 dead. Its just that the economic and civil effects of a total shutdown are untenable for republics and otherwise representative governments to mandate.