Bill Gates: Responding to Covid-19 – A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic? | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates: Responding to Covid-19 – A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic?

nejm.org

35 pointsbjourne8 comments

Bill Gates is an epidemiologist?

No, but he is an intelligent person who leads a billion-dollar organization that is, among other things, on the verge of eradicating the historical scourge of polio.

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/theoptimist/articles/Health-...

Surprisingly, no. He's founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft.

Popular public figure, plus famously finances medical research and charity work.

> Surprising, no. He's founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft.

> Popular public figure, plus famously finances medical research and charity work.

YMMV. A lot of rich people finance medical research ( some because they are sick) and charity "work" helps them avoid taxes.

Read a little more about it. Gates is a major player in medical research.

"Actually, I ran the numbers on this, and in this case, it makes financial sense to gain money."

Unless your marginal rate is over 100%, you will never save enough money in taxes to make up for it. (Though you can intelligently time and strategize the donations you do make.)

In general yes and no, in this case no. I think he sees it as a personal moral obligation by how he was raised.

In general, there are some extreme examples:

- The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is a non-profit with a multibillion endowment. It's how many American billionaires get tax benefits immediately while transferring assets later. And, the SVCF doesn't do very much community work except for donors' pet projects that may or may not be for the public good.

The previous maybe some ostensible philanthropy, but that's not how every very rich person operates: Patriotic Millionaires (calling for more taxes) and The Good Club (Bill Gates, Oprah, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner and more) are definitely counterexamples to the stereotype.

He works with epidemiologists amongst other professionals. He did not release this statement based on personal gut feel.

It's shocking to see that a private wealthy individual is taking the lead in dealing with this pandemic instead of the intended entities like WHO, but it makes sense in the context of Chinese influence over said entities and the spike in corruption reports that preceded this outbreak.

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