Bill Gates Weighs In on US Pandemic Response, Encryption, and Grilling Tech Executives (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0134522893
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/08/08/1742204/bill-gates-weighs-in-on-us-pandemic-response-encryption-and-grilling-tech-executives
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/bill-gates-on-covid-19-most-tests-are/
> Bill Gates: Yeah. There's three time periods, all of which have disappointments. There is 2015 until this particular pandemic hit. If we had built up the diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccine platforms, and if we'd done the simulations to understand what the key steps were, we'd be dramatically better off. Then there's the time period of the first few months of the pandemic, when the U.S. actually made it harder for the commercial testing companies to get their tests approved, the CDC had this very low volume test that didn't work at first, and they weren't letting people test. The travel ban came too late, and it was too narrow to do anything. Then, after the first few months, eventually we figured out about masks, and that leadership is important... [America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] have basically been muzzled since the beginning. We called the CDC, but they told us we had to talk to the White House a bunch of times. Now they say, "Look, we're doing a great job on testing, we don't want to talk to you." Even the simplest things, which would greatly improve this system, they feel would be admitting there is some imperfection and so they are not interested.
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> Wired: Do you think it's the agencies that fell down or just the leadership at the top, the White House?
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> Bill Gates: We can do the postmortem at some point. We still have a pandemic going on, and we should focus on that....
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> Wired: At this point, are you optimistic?
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> Bill Gates: Yes. You have to admit there's been trillions of dollars of economic damage done and a lot of debts, but the innovation pipeline on scaling up diagnostics, on new therapeutics, on vaccines is actually quite impressive. And that makes me feel like, for the rich world, we should largely be able to end this thing by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022. That is only because of the scale of the innovation that's taking place...
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> This disease, from both the animal data and the phase 1 data, seems to be very vaccine preventable.
Gates also believes the government shouldn't allow encryption to hide "lies or fraud or child pornography" on apps like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp -- prompting the interviewer to ask whether he's talked to his friend Mark Zuckerberg about it. "After I said this publicly, he sent me mail. I like Mark, I think he's got very good values, but he and I do disagree on the trade-offs involved there..."
Gates also thought today's tech executives got off easy with five hours of testifying before a Congressional subcommittee as a group of four. "Jesus Christ, what's the Congress coming to? If you want to give a guy a hard time, give him at least a whole day that he has to sit there on the hot seat by himself! And they didn't even have to get on a plane...!"
Gates added later that "there are a lot of valid issues, and if you're super-successful, the pleasure of going in front of the Congress comes with the territory."
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/bill-gates-on-covid-most-us-tests-are-completely-garbage/
[2] https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/bill-gates-on-covid-19-most-tests-are/
Re: Lead by example Bill (Score:1)
lol, you believe someone as evil as Gates, who campaigned for DECADES to literally sterilize all the peasants, would give the same vaccine to himself and his family that he gives to everyone else?
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What the fuck are you even babbling on about?
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There's a 99% chance Bill Gates will get the vaccine.
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> show us fools out here in flyover country how stupid we are.
You're doing just fine by yourself. Bill Gates' help isn't needed.
Popcorn Time (Score:1)
Hang on, need to get my popcorn ready!!
Eat a dick bill (Score:2)
"Gates also believes the government shouldn't allow encryption to hide"
What a shitheel.
Not a terrible idea (Score:3)
> Levy: "But people aren’t getting their tests back quickly enough."
> Gates: "Well, that’s just stupidity. The majority of all US tests are completely garbage, wasted. If you don’t care how late the date is and you reimburse at the same level, of course they’re going to take every customer. Because they are making ridiculous money, and it’s mostly rich people that are getting access to that. You have to have the reimbursement system pay a little bit extra for 24 hours, pay the normal fee for 48 hours, and pay nothing [if it isn’t done by then]. And they will fix it overnight."
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> "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
That because he didn't know many intelligent people. One of the hallmarks of intelligence is to ask, "Why am I unhappy?" analyze the problem, find a solution.
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I don't believe intelligence and happiness are mutually exclusive any more than I subscribe to the notion that ignorance always leads to bliss, but I have seen some evidence that suggests understanding more gives you more cause to worry... the naive happiness of children comes to mind.
I think it might be quite rare to find both the ability to honestly self-analyze and the willpower to implement change in a single human, regardless of intellect.
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It's not about willpower, it's about finding a way to make it happen despite your lack of willpower. If you don't have energy, ask, "How do I get more energy?"
True experts can't get traction (Score:1)
It's a sad state of affairs when tech billionaires are the conscience of our times. This is a scientific discussion but we can't get past all the blowhards needing to be heard.
Dr Bill Gates? (Score:1)
Hey, where's his Ph.D in virology, immunology, epidemiology, or experience in the field? What makes him an expert on the COVID-19 pandemic? Why are we listening to a tech billionaire when we should be listening to real experts who know what they're talking about instead of regurgitating what his PR managers & consultants have told him to say? Isn't this just some fancy form of PR press release & self-aggrandisement for Gates? Hasn't he already cost the US taxpayer enough? Yeah, it's the American tax
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In his defense.. he's been providing vaccines, and public health to countries for years as part of his work for the foundation.
So he probably knows more about epidemics than most people. He's also had a keen interest in influenza pandemics for years.
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So he's been giving injections? Sourcing & managing distribution? Analysing data? What exactly has he been doing that makes him an expert? The only thing he got seems to offer is money & he uses it to divert public funds into his pet projects regardless of the effects it has elsewhere. My expertise is in education so I know what a mess he's made there. I'd like to hear from independent experts in healthcare in developing countries & see what they have to say about Gates' 'philanthropy.'
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He's probably unaware that it's an either-or proposition. We all get to bloviate ignorantly, there's nothing stopping him from doing the same.
Re:Thanks Bill (Score:4, Insightful)
He actually makes a good case in the article that the CDC has been handcuffed, and not allowed to do their job:
> "I’m surprised at the US situation because the smartest people on epidemiology in the world, by a lot, are at the CDC. I would have expected them to do better. You would expect the CDC to be the most visible, not the White House or even Anthony Fauci. But they haven’t been the face of the epidemic. "
I know it is popular here to be critical of the Microsoft co-founder, but his recent behavior seems to be that of a man trying to rewrite his place in history. A lot of what the Gates foundation is doing is better than some governments, not that they've set the bar very high.
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> He actually makes a good case in the article that the CDC has been handcuffed, and not allowed to do their job:
So the CDC has been handcuffed because they won't listen to him and politely refer him to the White House? Why should the CDC listen to him more than you or me? Because he has billions and some foundation?
He just sounds like a frustrated kid, wannabe expert if you ask me. Just let the CDC do their job, I am sure that they don't need his advice. Also, let the politicians talk to people like it should be. The CIA also has some of the smartest people in their field, do you see them talking to the public very o
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It's like the medical world version of, "Just switch to Ruby and all your problems will be solved," or "Python is better!"
While it might be true, it's not usually the only/primary consideration.
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To continue your analogy, it also doesn't take into acount the orange PHB who says 'all the code will just disappear eventually'.
Re: Thanks Bill (Score:2)
I doubt Mr Gates is looking at a wiki and personally trying to provide CDC with recommendations. Just as the CDC hires experts and massively funds studies, the BMG Foundation does too. The CDC Foundation's entire purpose is to party with the likes of the BMG and filter that information up to the CDC to make federal policy.
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How did you get that from what he said? He clearly meant that the CDC was unable to do its job properly, that the science and expertise was limited and ignored.
That sounds about right, and for some other countries too like the UK. If there is anything we should learn from this it's that we need experts and all this anti intellectualism just gets people killed.
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>> He actually makes a good case in the article that the CDC has been handcuffed, and not allowed to do their job:
> So the CDC has been handcuffed because they won't listen to him and politely refer him to the White House? Why should the CDC listen to him more than you or me? Because he has billions and some foundation?
> He just sounds like a frustrated kid, wannabe expert if you ask me. Just let the CDC do their job, I am sure that they don't need his advice. Also, let the politicians talk to people like it should be. The CIA also has some of the smartest people in their field, do you see them talking to the public very often? Neither the CDC does that.
He leads a foundation that has billions of dollars and is a major player when it comes to vaccines and infectious diseases and is the second largest donor to the WHO (first if Trump actually does manage to stop funding permanently).
He's exactly the kind of person the CDC should be talking to. Partially because he leads an organization with resources the CDC could utilize. But also to make sure that him and his organization are on the same page as the CDC and don't start giving out a bunch of dumb advice tha
Re:Thanks Bill (Score:4, Informative)
> He actually makes a good case in the article that the CDC has been handcuffed, and not allowed to do their job:
>> "I’m surprised at the US situation because the smartest people on epidemiology in the world, by a lot, are at the CDC. I would have expected them to do better. You would expect the CDC to be the most visible, not the White House or even Anthony Fauci. But they haven’t been the face of the epidemic. "
> I know it is popular here to be critical of the Microsoft co-founder, but his recent behavior seems to be that of a man trying to rewrite his place in history. A lot of what the Gates foundation is doing is better than some governments, not that they've set the bar very high.
My friends at the CDC have a lot of respect for Fauci. They will also admit that they made mistakes with their response. That being said, nearly everything they recommend is being shot down immediately by the top executive of the federal government. Some 'CDC' guidelines haven't even originated from them (specifically that school guidelines for sure) and they have to water down everything to get approval to publish it.
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I'm sure it's an enviable environment for innovation.
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We're mostly not experts so does that mean none of us are allowed to discuss the pandemic then?
Who was claiming bills billions made him an expert? At what point did Bill say he wanted to do CDCs job for them?
There's plenty to criticise the guy for so why waste your breath with such meaningless statements. Like he invests billions into shitty companies that are making the world a worse place, billions that come from abusing monopoly position. And he barely spends the interest on good causes. And his money do
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> At what point did Bill say he wanted to do CDCs job for them?
Did you read the summary? He keeps on trying to tell the CDC what to do, and they keep telling him "no."
Re:Thanks Bill (Score:5, Insightful)
The professionals in the CDC are not being allowed to do their job, that's sorta the point. He contacts the CDC and by this point they just say, "go try and talk to the white house [because our primary directive is to not embarrass the administration]"
Re: Thanks Bill (Score:1)
> "go try and talk to the white house [because our primary directive is to not embarrass the administration]"
This is called "finger pointing." I truly doubt that anyone at the White House was keeping track of the idiosyncratic power plays in middle management of the CDC that could have brought on more early testing by importing Covid19 tests.
Furthermore, the primary goal was to "slow the spread" and "flatten the curve" so hospitals would not be overwhelmed. Not stop outright Covid19 spread which was inevitable.
There was and is a minefield of problems to navigate with Covid19. People need to understand that any bu
Re:Thanks Bill (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that was his point. We haven't let the CDC and the professionals do their job.
Instead, we have a bunch of craven clueless politicians "leading" the cover up.
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> If it is that good, that superior and that needed, LEAD by example and show us fools out here in flyover country how stupid we are.
You don't need Bill's help. You're already doing an excellent job of showing everyone how stupid *you* are. No need to drag your "flyover" neighbors into this.
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Weird...my reply got attached to the wrong post. Never mind.
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> Weird...my reply got attached to the wrong post. Never mind.
Oh sure, if it were only that easy. Now I cannot un-know your comment was attached to the wrong post.