Is Bill Gates an elected official? Is he a medical doctor?
Sorry, I understand that he means well, but we need more democratic engagement and less opinions from billionaire industrialists.
Sorry, I understand that he means well, but we need more democratic engagement and less opinions from billionaire industrialists.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-gates/bill-ga...
Seriously, you're picking the wrong argument here.
Now, if Gates had started talking about rainforest conservation efforts in South America (random topic), he'd have little authority. But on this specific topic, he does.
> Global health philanthropy has been his primary job for over a decade
Key word there being philanthropy, e.g. he's rich. Instead of listening to the guy with the wallet, we'd be better off listening to the people who actually put Bill Gates' money to use with their actual expertise in matters other than being rich.
It just so happens that we think Bill Gates is a good person and listening to him due to his billions ends up being good. This is clearly not always the case, so taking someone's opinion just because they're immensely rich is a slippery slope.
EDIT: As a disclaimer, I agree with him on this, we need a national shut down.
Bill Gates has literally been warning us about this for years.
The thing is, people are going to die no matter what. There is no vaccine. You could catch this thing tomorrow or in August, but if you're one of the unlucky ones with the overactive immune response, you could get immediate care, be looked after in an ICU and still die.
I understand they don't want everyone to catch this at once, but if most places are able to keep up now, is shutting down the country preemptively really a good idea?
Other more junior officials spent weeks saying masks were ineffective. Suddenly those same officials are now calling for certain workers to be protected with masks, and are mulling recommending all Americans wear masks.
At this point why should we trust expert or official opinion over any other crank?
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI
[2]: https://fortune.com/2018/04/18/bill-gates-foundation-malaria...
[3]: https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-letter-eradicate-...
He is a gifted human in his ability to consume knowledge from books and people. If you listen to his interviews with professionals (in the medical and energy fields) it sounds like he himself is a professional in the field himself because he has a deep base of knowledge in fields that he pursues.
In many scenarios, the hive mind of democracy is not the best solution. He's right, and not the only person saying that a complete shutdown will stop COVID-19 dead. Its just that the economic and civil effects of a total shutdown are untenable for republics and otherwise representative governments to mandate.
The President, Republican politicians, anchors on Fox News, or Bill Gates?
Who is getting the most public mindshare right now?
Nobody should be comfortable with the honest answers, and when this is all done, perhaps it's time for America to "talk that over" at the ballot box and by turning off cable news.
let me put it another way. if he had the experts come out and say things instead of himself, i doubt it would be on the front page here.
this is why people have celebrities endorse their causes
Regardless, I think the OP of this thread is not giving Bill as much credit as he deserves- running and funding an international global health effort is not a simple task and I wouldn't be shocked if he was better at handling public health issues than writing code now.
I'm also a bit skeptical that Americans elected officials making decisions is much related to "democratic engagement"...