- James Clayton
- BBC News, technology reporter
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46 minutes
Bill Gates and journalist Mishal Husain during an interview on the BBC’s Today program on Thursday
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Bill Gates has long been a proponent of vaccines, but some conspiracy theorists believe he’s using them to track people — and are even yelled at on the street — “which is a horrible thing.”
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This is what the Microsoft tycoon said this Thursday in a wide-ranging interview with the BBC’s Today program, where he also stated that the conspiracies about him are “crazy”.
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He also said that meeting Jeffrey Epstein was a “mistake” and talked about the Elon Musk’s criticism of him.
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Bill Gates was until recently the richest person in the world. That title is now held by Elon Musk. But they don’t get along with each other.
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Last week, Musk accused Gates of “shorting” Tesla shares, a way to make money by betting a company will lose value. Musk also tweeted childish insults at Gates on Twitter.
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“There’s no need for him to be nice to me,” Gates said.
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Musk argued that shorting shares of Tesla, his electric car company, undermines Gates’ environmental philanthropy.
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Asked specifically if he had bet against Tesla, Gates replied: “That has nothing to do with climate change. I have ways to diversify.”
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In addition, he rejected the idea that reducing the shares of Tesla was harmful to the environment.
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“The popularity of electric cars will lead to more competition to sell those cars. So there is a difference between adopting electric cars and companies becoming infinitely valuable.”
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Musk recently submitted an offer to buy Twitter that was accepted by the company’s board.
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Asked what he thought of the deal, Gates said: “I guess Twitter could possibly be worse (with Elon Musk). But it could also be better… So mi attitude is the to wait and see What’s up“.
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“Vaccines save lives”
Gates is especially interested in social networks, not because through them he has made millions of dollars, but because it has become the center of conspiracy theories.
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He has long been a vaccine advocate, investing billions of dollars in inoculation programs around the world.
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That prominence has made it the object of strange and unfounded claims that he is trying to trace people through vaccinations. Many of the theories have been promoted on social media, especially during the pandemic.
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“Somehow, you almost have to laugh because is very crazy“, dice.
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image source, Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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Conspiracies against Bill Gates for his investments in vaccines have gone around the world
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“I mean, would I really want to track people? I spend billions (of dollars) on vaccines, I don’t make any money on them; vaccines save lives.”
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Gates also said that conspiracy theorists had yelled at him on the street.
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“I was in public recently and some people yelled at me that I’m tracking them. that’s a horrible thing“.
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Gates and his wife Melinda French Gates announced they would be divorcing last year. The couple created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest charities in the world. They were married for 27 years.
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“My life is very different. My children left home, the last one went to university a year ago. Divorce is very hard. It was a difficult year.”said.
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The marriage ended with reports that Gates had an extramarital affair. In March, Melinda Gates said she questioned why her husband had met disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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“I didn’t like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” Melinda Gates told CBS in March.
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When the BBC asked Gates about those meetings with Epstein, he said they were “a mistake”.
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“I made a mistake meeting with Jeffrey Epstein. maybe your instincts [de Melinda] they were sharper than mine about it.
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“Any meeting I had with him could almost be seen as an endorsement of his bad behavior. So that was a mistake.”
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