As the world battled with the novel Coronavirus, the United States, the Microsoft Founder, Mr Bill Gates has said he has no knowledge about how COVID-19 was invented as widely speculated.
The US billionaire denied some of the conspiracy theories spreading online accusing him of creating the coronavirus outbreak.
While speaking in a live television interview, the philanthropist said it is a bad combination of pandemic and social media and people looking for a very simple explanation.
There are several photos and write ups on the subject matter sponsored by the Conspiracy theorist and are widely circulated across the social media and other platforms since 2019.
There is also a video alleging the billionaire wanting “to eliminate 15 percent of the population” through vaccination and electronic microchips has racked up millions of views on YouTube.
Gates further noted “Our foundation has given more money to buy vaccines to save lives than any group,” Gates said, referring to his eponymous foundation.
The richest man in the world has pledged $250 million in efforts to fight the pandemic and his foundation has so far spent billions of dollars improving health care in developing countries over the past 20 years.
He explained further; “So, you just turn that around. You say, ok, we’re making money and we’re trying to kill people with vaccines or by inventing something,” Gates continued.
“And at least it’s true, we’re associated with vaccines, but you actually have sort of flipped the connection,” he said, adding he hopes the conspiracies don’t generate “vaccine hesitancy.”
Since the incidence started, several media organization have debunked many of anti-Gates conspiracies circulating on several social media platforms.
They accuse the tycoon of exploiting the crisis, whether it is to “control people” or make money from selling vaccines.
It is not the first time Gates has found himself targeted by conspiracy theorists. When Zika virus broke out in 2015 in Brazil, he was one of several powerful Western figures blamed for the disease.
The billionaire has been criticizing the U.S. response and shared some regrets on the handling of the crisis.
He said: “Serious mistakes were made, some of which were because we didn’t understand the virus very well — the understanding about the importance of masks came later than we wish it had, and then the U.S. had the lowest compliance with mask use of any country, didn’t have the leadership message there,” Gates said, adding that he hopes to put this behind us by the end of next year.
He also explained that President Trump’s recent assertion that the U.S. has the one of lowest mortality rates in the world is not even close to accurate.
Further asserted: “I mean, by almost every measure, the U.S. is the one of the worst and I think we can change that, but it’s an ugly picture,” Gates said. “We actually had criteria for opening up that said you had to have cases declining and we opened up with cases increasing. We somehow got masks as this politicized thing … and some like, harbinger of freedom, that just covering your mouth was awful.”
