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Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

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Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#231

Post by sukilot »

ipsum2 wrote: post #130
AmericanChopper wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates certainly doesn’t have the credentials of a public health expert. His work with health experts has extended to funding and choosing what problems to solve. You’d presume he’s learned a fair amount about it over the years. But I’ve learned a fair amount about accountancy through my years of working with corporate accountants. I’m definitely not an accountancy expert though. What qualifications do you imagin…

If your full time job is to lead corporate accountants / head a large corporate accountancy firm and you've done it for several years, I'd consider you an accountancy expert.

It's not corporate in the sense of a successful business. It's a self-funded personal project with nothing to hold it accountable for competency. This is one of the major criticism of Gates in the NGO world.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#232

Post by zarkov99 »

djsumdog wrote: post #138

Why the hell does everyone now see Gates as some kind of superhero?! He was, and still is, a notorious, power hungry, anti-competitive slime ball. He has all the money in the world, so the only thing left is power. His foundation seeks to create "viable markets" for vaccines and the original name for his foundation was "The Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population Control." I don't trust anything that piece of…

Gates has saved 100+ million children. What have you done with your life that is so much better?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#233

Post by refurb »

yalogin wrote: post #201
refurb wrote: post #36

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it odd that Gates is the go to source for public health issues. His biggest contribution is money, which pays for really smart people to tackle these issues. So why not talk to the really smart people he hired?

I don’t understand what your motivation is for saying this. Why do you think Bill is not to be asked these questions? Do you think he would twist or misrepresent facts? Do you think somehow funding so much research makes him untrustworthy?

Oh, they can certainly ask Bill these questions, but I would say there are a ton of people who have far more expertise in infectious diseases than him.

If they were asking him about funding these efforts, then yeah, he’d be the go to guy.

But asking him about the science?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#234

Post by sukilot »

matwood wrote: post #198
creato wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No matter who you put forth saying what Gates has been saying, they will quickly be tarnished by the same baseless bullshit. Effectively 0% of people knew who Facui or Birx were before the pandemic. Now they're the target of the same kind of controversy.

I think if someone was gay and or dealt with HIV in some form, they likely heard of Dr Fauci. Researchers definitely know who is. From his CDC bio: “In a 2020 analysis of Google Scholar citations, Dr. Fauci ranked as the 41st most highly cited researcher of all time. According to the Web of Science, Dr. Fauci ranked 7th out of more than 1.8 million authors in the field of immunology by total citation count between 19…

Right, that's no one, statistically speaking. In particular, the people calling for Fauci's family to be harmed are not in the group you mentioned.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#235

Post by wvenable »

kebman wrote: post #190
reillyse wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure there is evidence for or against. The argument I would make is not about censorship but preventing people from spreading lies. Even in the US where people hold free speech as some amazingly virtuous thing there are still curbs on speech, and what I'm saying is these limitations can be enforced in WhatsApp. Maybe you think that is censorship maybe you don't. Also on that point, the freedom of speech in th…

The best way to fight the spread of lies is: 1. To spread truth 2. To hold people accountable for what they say

It's never been easier to do #1 and never been harder to do #2.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#236

Post by reillyse »

tptacek wrote: post #207
ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

What's frustrating about this question is that it (inevitably!) commands the top of the HN thread with a discussion of the least interesting thing in the article. It's an article about COVID and Facebook, and here we're recapitulating the end-to-end encryption debate for the 8-zillionth time.

Yea, I feel bad about this tangent. I actually enjoyed the article, I just got annoyed about what I felt was a mischaracterization of the entire piece, leading to that mischaracterization dominating the discussion, I'm going to upvote the next comment..

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#237

Post by sukilot »

refurb wrote: post #230
GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a couple of reasons; Gates is well known and will draw more visibility. He’s a well trained public speaker. He knows enough about the subject matter to communicate it effectively. Also, a short interview probably isn’t long enough for someone with deep subject knowledge to scratch the surface.

Ok, I’ll buy the visibility thing. When Gates talks about anything people will listen. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me, but it comes across as a bit of “billionaire worship”. “He’s made lots of money, so he must be brilliant and I want to hear what brilliant people think about Covid.”

Zuckerberg and Musk and Trump are billionaires and no one wants to hear their ramblings. Gates has run a huge public health organization for over a decade.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#239

Post by refurb »

paxys wrote: post #127
refurb wrote: post #36

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it odd that Gates is the go to source for public health issues. His biggest contribution is money, which pays for really smart people to tackle these issues. So why not talk to the really smart people he hired?

Why interview the CEO of a company and not engineers building the product?

Depends on the questions I guess?

I’ve heard my own CEO try explain something technical and it’s clear they don’t really understand it (and why should they? That’s why they hired experts).

In this article Bill says “most of the Covid tests are garbage”. That seems like a technical statement that should come from someone who is an expert in testing.

If the question was “what do you think the most promising Covid treatments are?” that’s a good question for Bill, assuming he’s involved in the funding decisions (maybe he’s not?).

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#240

Post by MrDresden »

mehrdadn wrote: post #69
refurb wrote: post #36

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it odd that Gates is the go to source for public health issues. His biggest contribution is money, which pays for really smart people to tackle these issues. So why not talk to the really smart people he hired?

Don't forget he gave a TED talk warning the world about the next pandemic. And obviously he knows a thing or two about high-level issues dealing with epidemics (which extend beyond just the medicine). Why would they just ignore him?

Bill Gates was not in anyway, no matter how much he might have liked to be, a prophet about the increasing likelyhood of a global pandemic.

This possibility has been discussed and researched for decades by experts and policy makers around the world.

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