Bill Gates Tells Anti-Lockdown Musk To Stay in His Lane, Ignoring His Own Sharing of COVID Misinformation
Bill Gates seems to have a hard time following his own advice.
On Monday, the Microsoft co-founder criticized fellow business titan Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, for commenting on the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting that Musk should stick to what he knows.
As it turns out, Gates has given his own opinions on the spread of COVID-19, one of which appears to be misleading.
“Elon’s positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments,” Gates said in the interview with CNBC that aired Tuesday.
“He’s not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he’s allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn’t confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.”
Musk’s name was brought up after Gates was asked about the spreading of misinformation on social media platforms.
“When you let people communicate, you have to deal with the fact that certain incorrect things that are very titillating can spread very rapidly compared to the truth. And we’ve always seen that with vaccines,” Gates said.
“To the degree to which these media companies can see what’s being said on their platform and take things that are absolutely wrong and get rid of those things or slow those things down, that’s very tough.”
Musk responded to Gates’ criticism with a little bit of humor Thursday on Twitter.
“Billy G is not my lover,” he said, a twist on Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”
? Billy G is not my lover ?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2020
“The rumor that Bill Gates & I are lovers is completely untrue,” Musk added in a follow-up tweet.
The rumor that Bill Gates & I are lovers is completely untrue
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2020
The Tesla CEO has tweeted out a number of messages related to COVID-19 that run counter to the mainstream narratives of needed to shut down the economy over the past few months.
The coronavirus panic is dumb
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2020
FREE AMERICA NOW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020
Classifying all deaths as corona even if corona didn’t cause the death is simply a lie https://t.co/R1sgzcFS46
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2020
Although Gates was quick to tell Musk to stay in his lane, back in April the Microsoft co-founder made some shocking comments about the Chinese government and its response to the coronavirus outbreak, which would seem to be “areas he’s not involved in too much.”
In an interview with CNN, he was asked, “How would you respond to the charge that, look, the Chinese covered this up, they essentially deceived the rest of the world, and as a result they should be held in some way responsible for this?”
“I don’t think that’s a timely thing because it doesn’t affect how we act today,” Gates responded. “You know, China did a lot of things right at the beginning, like any country where a virus first shows up. They can look back and say they missed some things.
“You know some countries did respond very quickly and get their testing in place and they avoided the incredible economic pain. It’s sad that even the U.S., which you would have expected to do well, did it particularly poorly. …
“So that’s a distraction. I think there’s a lot of incorrect and unfair things said, but it’s not even time for that discussion.”
There’s ample evidence to suggest that, despite what Gates believes, China’s response to the virus’ outbreak was particularly awful.
Multiple reports indicate the Chinese government knew about the virus as far back as Nov. 17 and went to great lengths to cover up the outbreak.
If China had acted sooner, as many as 95 percent of all coronavirus cases worldwide could have been prevented, according to a peer-reviewed study.
If Bill Gates is going to tell others to refrain from commenting on COVID-19, perhaps he should start taking his own advice.
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