Gates looses mosquitoes on tech conference bloodsuckers Bill Gates opened a jar of mosquitoes on stage at a conference for elite technology bloodsuckers on Wednesday to make a point about the spread of malaria. "Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," Gates said before unleashing the insects at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) conference in Long Beach, California. "I …
"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," Gates said ...
Well, half right. Humans are the other half of the vector, or so I'm told.
Attendees may want to think about West Nile Virus and maybe Eastern Equine Encephalitis too, as at least WNV has been reported in SoCal.
What a fscking doofus.
Good title for the video.
But attendees need not worry. It's extremely unlikely that he got those mosquitoes from the jungles. We have lots of them in labs, for example, and they are obviously clean. Who knows, he might even have released male mosquitoes only, which do not feed on blood and therefore do not transmit anything.
How utterly stupid. In all seriousness, I hope the attendees sue him. He voluntarily and willingly inflicted fear and emotional distress to all of the attendees, allowing them to believe that their safety (and, in fact, their lives) were in danger. That is completely unacceptable behavior, even for one of the richest men in the world. If he had said, as he released the mosquitoes, that they did not carry malaria, that would be one thing, but he did not. There is also no guarantee that the mosquitoes weren't carrying any other disease which the attendees could not be infected with (much like deer ticks can carry Lyme disease). To say nothing of the possibility of one of the mosquitoes sucking the blood of an HIV-infected attendee, then introduces that blood into another attendee. Sure, in all likelihood, there will be no negative affects other than some temporary itching, but the truth is, we (and he) just don't know.
And, since this is the US and the previous administration liked to call everyone a terrorist, consider this -- Bill Gates really is a terrorist. By definition, a terrorist is someone who uses terror/fear to coerce someone into doing something. And that's exactly what Bill Gates was attempting to do. So when will he be arrested and tried as a terrorist?
There are plenty of (correct) ways to get your message across, and to ask for aid. That was not the way to do it. And while a lot of people will defend the guy, if he's that gung-ho about it, let him contribute a lot more of his personal fortune. He can afford it a lot more than those attendees.
Can they only bite one person? I don't know much about these bugs but if it's possible for them to bite multiple people then the possibility of spreading other diseases is very likely. Who knows what these people have that are in the conference. Or what about the illegal alien help they probably have working the event, what are they bringing over here, gotta wonder. I'd sue, he'd sue you if he had the chance.
"He voluntarily and willingly inflicted fear and emotional distress"
Fear? Really?! Emotional Distress?
The poor little blighters attending TED were obviously to dim to realise it was a stunt and feared for their lives, their children's lives and probably their dog's too. That's three frivolous lawsuits then!
As stunts go this is also easily controllable, use some clean male mozzies from a lab, because they don't bite, and noone is even itchin'.
As for HIV, nice use of a bit of emotional FUD in your argument, but surely, surely, HIV has been around long enough for everyone to know mozzies are not a vector for HIV [http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/qa/qa32.htm if you don't]
martin
PS: never ever thought I'd use that icon...
<blah blah>world health<waffle waffle>foreign aid<mumble>
[reach under desk]This jar (opens jar) contains mosquitoes (waves jar around) which transmit malaria
Why not? No one will look at the jar beforehand, and given how hard it is to spot the little bastards in a small hotel room, trying to decide whether there were any in big press arena would be a nightmare.
So, call me a cynic, but "No mosquitoes" = same publicity factor, no potential for law suit for someone who was in a malaria zone last week blames their holiday malaria on you and (for me the biggie) no tedious trip to Insects'R'Us beforehand to stock up
Fortunately HIV can't survive in a mosquito the way Malaria and other diseases do.
I'd assume he used males from a lab source, but of course terror is unrelated to the actual risk involved and so I'd say he could be sued for bio-terrorism.
That said I'm reminded of the quote "The only way a rich man goes to jail is if a richer one wants him there",and there aren't that many richer than Billy.
Are you aware that all that money is chump change to him ?
Sure he gives a lot, and of course it's a good thing. Never forget, though, that he has reaped a million times what he gives from the gouging he gave the market.
In my view, the only thing he's doing is buying himself some respectability.
I hate to shock you, but mosquitoes are found in the wild all over the US. During about half the year, I don't need Bill Gates to bring around a jar, I just have to walk out into my back yard. Remarkably enough, I've not yet come down with malaria, dengue, yellow fever, or West Nile Virus.
@angry raving loony
"It's about time that bloodsucking bastard got what's coming to him"
<sarcasm>That bastard! Where does he get off donating all of that money to charity? Someone really must put a stop to this, what a felonious cad!</sarcasm>
@ andrew stevens
"you spelt "fucking" wrong"
You spelled "fscking" wrong.
true dat.
There's nothing funny or clever about it. I think we all know that (poor?) countries have major problems with malaria. They also die from diahrrea. It is not my fault. So why should you put laxatives in the buffet? I am sort of sick of the rich countries being told they should help out the poor ones, when the actual reason they are poor is because of the RICH corrupted people in charge.
What good will it REALLY do, to donate nets to Africa? What good will it do when a supposedly common belief (or excuse) is that raping virgins cures men of AIDs?
Why is there a charity getting lots of press about stopping tetanus in poor countries? Yes, terrible. They are dying of tetanus. Lets help them. THEN we find out the reason they're getting tetanus is because they are stuffing open wounds with dirt from the ground in some weird attempt to make it heal?
The comment "And while a lot of people will defend the guy, if he's that gung-ho about it, let him contribute a lot more of his personal fortune. He can afford it a lot more than those attendees" is ridiculous populist tripe. He funded the BMGF with $220m of his own money, which is far more than you'd most likely make in 50 lifetimes. While it is a small fraction of his estimated $40bn (most of which is perpetually falling US stock holdings), it's still a significant monetary amount.
Additionally, Gates has publicly stated that upon the death of he and his wife, 99% of his remaining wealth will be donated to charities, which will still most likely be in the neighborhood of $30-40bn. Additionally, when he and his wife die, the entire endowment of the BMGF must be distributed within 50 years.
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