Cool story, Bill. Who did you donate to? Why did you cut your philanthropic efforts to fight climate change and disease? Why have you and your buddies fought for minimizing and coopting government for years? Bill isn’t innocent in all this, it’s just a good time to blame Elon. Don’t get me wrong, Elon 100% deserves it, but that doesn’t mean that Bill isn’t playing the PR game here.
Nobody, but I voted for Harris. Last I saw, Gates was cutting back on donating to his foundation that fights infectious diseases in the developing world.
Wrong place for “both sides the same”. Sure, any of us could do more, and billionaires could do a lot more, but you’re equating a Nazi cutting entire government programs to aid the most vulnerable here and abroad, with a billionaire who has donated a significant portion of his personal wealth to aid humanity, including eradicating diseases
Nah, I saw a year or two back that Bill was pulling back from his climate and disease philanthropy. I think this is just him jumping on a chance to do some PR by dunking on Musk.
Do you have a source? The only thing I can see is much more recent, and isn’t philanthropy, but lobbying.
He’s apparently reduced his climate change related lobbying under the new administration… which sounds like a rational response, because this administration is actively hostile to any and all climate change initiatives.
What’s the point in donating to lobby for windmills when Don Quixote Cheeto is in charge?
We’re at a moment where anger against the wealthiest people on the planet has never been higher, except maybe during a revolution. Bill is among this group, and he’s likely cognizant that Dingus and Doofus up in DC are exacerbating that sentiment. Maybe he’s hedging his bets to keep from getting put against the wall.
Didn’t he fly to Epstein Island? Wasn’t it shortly after we found out about that that Melinda divorced him? Probably not the most recent thing he’d like to be remembered for.
Gates was always widely reviled. He didn’t build a vast fortune drowning competitors and locking customers into frustrating experiences by being a Boy Scout.
Maybe you dismiss his actions in retirement as an attempt to resurrect his reputation, but it’s succeeded. Compare to other billionaires. Did he keep building wealth until he died? No. Did he focus on establishing a dynasty or wealthy chain of heirs? No. Did he buy his way into politics? No. Did he only donate to one place? No. Did his foundation fade away into obscurity and irrelevance? No. Did he donate to the most popular causes among billionaires? No. Now try to find a billionaire who has done as much good for as many people. From anywhere in history
It’s easy to find fault in anyone, but this is the wrong windmill to tilt at.
There was a recent announcement where he reiterated a goal of giving away 99% of his wealth! Of course you could quibble about his choices of charity and how he built his wealth, but the formerly wealthiest person in the US giving away 99% is a huge deal, and we can not dream of other billionaires following suit.
While Musk isn’t retired yet, how much has he donated to any cause? Yes, Musk deserves this PR dunk
Musk deserves a lot more than just a PR dunk, but I’m still not entirely convinced that it’s just a cynical PR play. Hopefully Bill will prove me wrong.
This isn’t Bill’s action, it’s Bill’s inaction. As per those articles, all he did was not support the waiver of patents, which ultimately wasn’t his decision anyway? He claimed that it would not significantly change production, or at least not quickly enough to matter.
It still seems shitty, but comparing to Elon? Who is actively cutting off the flow of medication that has already been manufactured and paid for - to dying children?
Allowing tuberculosis patients to lapse partway through treatment, thereby allowing drug resistant TB to skyrocket in impoverished communities and by extension the entite world?
Effectively guaranteeing a death sentence for infected children, who will experience a relapse of a horrifying but completely curable disease? Children who will not be able to afford the diagnostics and treatments for a second round because they are orders of magnitude more expensive for drug-resistant TB?
If you had read the article, you would know that he very actively pressured Oxford not to open license the vaccine, leveraging his $750 million donation to the university for vaccine research.
It claims that he bragged about doing so, and links to another article.
But that other article doesn’t support that claim with any evidence that he pressured them to keep their patent, that he bragged about it, or had any say in the final decision.
We went to Oxford and said, Hey, you’re doing brilliant work,” Bill Gates told reporters on June 3, a transcript shows. “But … you really need to team up.” The comments were first reported by Bloomberg.
AstraZeneca, one of the U.K.’s two major pharma companies, may have demanded an exclusive license in return for doing a deal, said Ken Shadlen, a professor at the London School of Economics and an authority on pharma patents—a theory supported by comments from CEO Soriot.
"We simply don’t know what’s in these deals,” he said. “The biopharma industry is applying old rules of commercial confidentiality in a situation that is unprecedented.”
The sentence after where it says that… You have ctrl f. Use it.
that other article doesn’t support that claim with any evidence that he pressured them to keep their patent, that he bragged about it, or had any say in the final decision.
Not sure what “evidence” you want… Bill Gates said it was true himself and did multiple interviews talking about it which are not hard to find. Every article I can find online says the same story - that Oxford initially planned to open license the vaccine and then Gates pressured them to change course.
It doesn’t quote him, though. It just links to an article. Of which I provided the only seemingly relevant quotes.
Does “we told them… you really need to team up.” count as bragging?
That’s the only relevant quote I can see, and it amounts to him getting them to partner with AstraZeneca. It’s hard to tell if the chicken comes before the egg - does AstraZeneca insist on patents, or does he?
Was it the only way to get a massive pharmaceutical partner like AstraZeneca to agree to a deal with Oxford? Or was it something he personally wanted?
Either way would appear the same - if he was directly involved in the deal, he’d be obligated to publically support it, patent restrictions and all.
The article is intentionally disingenous, as well. It claims:
Oxford sold the sole right of production to AstraZeneca, with no guarantee of low prices and an extraordinary opportunity for profit
Even though as you can see from - again - the same article it linked to before:
After Oxford announced the exclusive AstraZeneca deal, the company said it would sell vaccines at no profit—but only during the pandemic.
Which is - admittedly, temporarily - low prices and an extraordinarily reduced opportunity for profit. Especially given how significantly vaccination rate fell over time.
And:
Under its deal with AstraZeneca, Oxford will receive no royalties during the pandemic
There’s no such thing as a good billionaire, but there is such a thing as worse billionaires. It seems like Bill Gates spent $750 million to fund vaccine development - including 1.5 million that happened to go to pre-pandemic funding of the decade-old research that made the mRNA technology even possible - and over a billion dollars on support for the WHO.
It also seems like he encouraged Oxford to partner with a giant pharmaeceutical company. This lead to them deciding not to open-source their vaccine.
It is a terrible thing to do, but it is also tough to say if they could have ever managed the immediately required production without a giant pharmaceutical partner like AstraZeneca. The first months of mass vaccination were by far the most critical.
Compared to Musk? Who took medication that was already manufactured, already bought and paid for, already in warehouses and ships and planes ready to help impoverished communities?
Who bought an election and leveraged that to suddenly and illegally cut off international aid out of spite and greed, allowing drug-resistant TB to flourish?
Who has the most money out of fucking all of them and doesn’t spend a dime for anyone but himself?
Cool story, Bill. Who did you donate to? Why did you cut your philanthropic efforts to fight climate change and disease? Why have you and your buddies fought for minimizing and coopting government for years? Bill isn’t innocent in all this, it’s just a good time to blame Elon. Don’t get me wrong, Elon 100% deserves it, but that doesn’t mean that Bill isn’t playing the PR game here.
Why did Bill fly on Epstein’s Lolita Express?
Cool story, Soup. Who did you donate to?
Nobody, but I voted for Harris. Last I saw, Gates was cutting back on donating to his foundation that fights infectious diseases in the developing world.
So you’re just whingeing online about someone who plans to spend 99% of their wealth on saving millions of lives, while you’ve done fuck-all.
Let me stop what I’m doing so I can clap for you and your moral high ground.
Oh no, not my ego!
It’s not his wealth. It’s ours. Heard of the windows tax?
“Donate” = tax evasion
Oh no, millions of human lives saved by “tax evasion”, let me clutch my pearls closer
Saved my ball. He’s using poor people it to trail untested vaccines
You have a generally submissive mindset, dont ya? I bet you tip your landlord
Wrong place for “both sides the same”. Sure, any of us could do more, and billionaires could do a lot more, but you’re equating a Nazi cutting entire government programs to aid the most vulnerable here and abroad, with a billionaire who has donated a significant portion of his personal wealth to aid humanity, including eradicating diseases
Nah, I saw a year or two back that Bill was pulling back from his climate and disease philanthropy. I think this is just him jumping on a chance to do some PR by dunking on Musk.
Do you have a source? The only thing I can see is much more recent, and isn’t philanthropy, but lobbying.
He’s apparently reduced his climate change related lobbying under the new administration… which sounds like a rational response, because this administration is actively hostile to any and all climate change initiatives.
What’s the point in donating to lobby for windmills when Don
QuixoteCheeto is in charge?Frankly, I don’t. I read something about it a while back, and I remember being really disappointed that he was stepping back from that.
Cool story bro.
What purpose does he need PR work done?
Well, a few things:
they say the only bad press is no press.
We’re at a moment where anger against the wealthiest people on the planet has never been higher, except maybe during a revolution. Bill is among this group, and he’s likely cognizant that Dingus and Doofus up in DC are exacerbating that sentiment. Maybe he’s hedging his bets to keep from getting put against the wall.
Didn’t he fly to Epstein Island? Wasn’t it shortly after we found out about that that Melinda divorced him? Probably not the most recent thing he’d like to be remembered for.
Gates was always widely reviled. He didn’t build a vast fortune drowning competitors and locking customers into frustrating experiences by being a Boy Scout.
Maybe you dismiss his actions in retirement as an attempt to resurrect his reputation, but it’s succeeded. Compare to other billionaires. Did he keep building wealth until he died? No. Did he focus on establishing a dynasty or wealthy chain of heirs? No. Did he buy his way into politics? No. Did he only donate to one place? No. Did his foundation fade away into obscurity and irrelevance? No. Did he donate to the most popular causes among billionaires? No. Now try to find a billionaire who has done as much good for as many people. From anywhere in history
It’s easy to find fault in anyone, but this is the wrong windmill to tilt at.
There was a recent announcement where he reiterated a goal of giving away 99% of his wealth! Of course you could quibble about his choices of charity and how he built his wealth, but the formerly wealthiest person in the US giving away 99% is a huge deal, and we can not dream of other billionaires following suit.
While Musk isn’t retired yet, how much has he donated to any cause? Yes, Musk deserves this PR dunk
Musk deserves a lot more than just a PR dunk, but I’m still not entirely convinced that it’s just a cynical PR play. Hopefully Bill will prove me wrong.
He made windows. For that alone we should luigi him
Yeah this asshole is a total hypocrite.
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/
https://archive.ph/2024.10.22-141139/https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/
Surprised I had to scroll so long for this article. This is probably the best example (recent history too) of Bill’s actions killing kids.
I’m still glad he called Elon out. Let them fight.
This isn’t Bill’s action, it’s Bill’s inaction. As per those articles, all he did was not support the waiver of patents, which ultimately wasn’t his decision anyway? He claimed that it would not significantly change production, or at least not quickly enough to matter.
It still seems shitty, but comparing to Elon? Who is actively cutting off the flow of medication that has already been manufactured and paid for - to dying children?
Allowing tuberculosis patients to lapse partway through treatment, thereby allowing drug resistant TB to skyrocket in impoverished communities and by extension the entite world?
Effectively guaranteeing a death sentence for infected children, who will experience a relapse of a horrifying but completely curable disease? Children who will not be able to afford the diagnostics and treatments for a second round because they are orders of magnitude more expensive for drug-resistant TB?
I agree. The difference between the two is stark.
If you had read the article, you would know that he very actively pressured Oxford not to open license the vaccine, leveraging his $750 million donation to the university for vaccine research.
Really? Show me where.
It claims that he bragged about doing so, and links to another article.
But that other article doesn’t support that claim with any evidence that he pressured them to keep their patent, that he bragged about it, or had any say in the final decision.
The sentence after where it says that… You have ctrl f. Use it.
Not sure what “evidence” you want… Bill Gates said it was true himself and did multiple interviews talking about it which are not hard to find. Every article I can find online says the same story - that Oxford initially planned to open license the vaccine and then Gates pressured them to change course.
It doesn’t quote him, though. It just links to an article. Of which I provided the only seemingly relevant quotes.
Does “we told them… you really need to team up.” count as bragging?
That’s the only relevant quote I can see, and it amounts to him getting them to partner with AstraZeneca. It’s hard to tell if the chicken comes before the egg - does AstraZeneca insist on patents, or does he?
Was it the only way to get a massive pharmaceutical partner like AstraZeneca to agree to a deal with Oxford? Or was it something he personally wanted?
Either way would appear the same - if he was directly involved in the deal, he’d be obligated to publically support it, patent restrictions and all.
The article is intentionally disingenous, as well. It claims:
Even though as you can see from - again - the same article it linked to before:
Which is - admittedly, temporarily - low prices and an extraordinarily reduced opportunity for profit. Especially given how significantly vaccination rate fell over time.
And:
There’s no such thing as a good billionaire, but there is such a thing as worse billionaires. It seems like Bill Gates spent $750 million to fund vaccine development - including 1.5 million that happened to go to pre-pandemic funding of the decade-old research that made the mRNA technology even possible - and over a billion dollars on support for the WHO.
It also seems like he encouraged Oxford to partner with a giant pharmaeceutical company. This lead to them deciding not to open-source their vaccine.
It is a terrible thing to do, but it is also tough to say if they could have ever managed the immediately required production without a giant pharmaceutical partner like AstraZeneca. The first months of mass vaccination were by far the most critical.
Compared to Musk? Who took medication that was already manufactured, already bought and paid for, already in warehouses and ships and planes ready to help impoverished communities?
Who bought an election and leveraged that to suddenly and illegally cut off international aid out of spite and greed, allowing drug-resistant TB to flourish?
Who has the most money out of fucking all of them and doesn’t spend a dime for anyone but himself?
That’s the worst billionaire.
Mmm yes. This is why I Lemmy. This article had so many bots praising him on Reddit. Refreshing to hear something other than boot licking