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Hello. I’m Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft.

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In this video you’re going to see the future.

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Who is Bill Gates?

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A software developer? A businessman?

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A philanthropist? A global health expert?

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This question, once merely academic, is becoming a very real question

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for those who are beginning to realize that Gates’ unimaginable wealth has been used

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to gain control over every corner of the fields of public health, medical research and vaccine development.

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And now that we are presented with the very problem that Gates has been talking about for years,

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we will soon find that this software developer with no medical training

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is going to leverage that wealth into control over the fates of billions of people.

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because until we get almost everybody vaccinated globally, we still won’t be fully back to normal.

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Bill Gates is no public health expert.

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He is not a doctor, an epidemiologist or an infectious disease researcher.

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Yet somehow he has become a central figure in the lives of billions of people,

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presuming to dictate the medical actions that will be required for the world to go back to normal.

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The transformation of Bill Gates from computer kingpin to global health czar

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is as remarkable as it is instructive, and it tells us a great deal about where we are heading

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as the world plunges into a crisis the likes of which we have not seen before.

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This is the story of How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health.

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You’re tuned in to The Corbett Report.

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Until his reinvention as a philanthropist in the past decade,

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this is what many people thought of when they thought of Bill Gates:

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In the case of the United States vs Microsoft,

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the US Justice Department contended that software giant

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had breached antitrust laws by competing unfairly against Netscape Communications

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in the internet browser market, effectively creating a monopoly.

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Bill’s first concern was that the prosecution could potentially block the release

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of his company’s latest operating system, Windows 98.

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Are you asking me about when I wrote this e-mail or what are you asking me about?

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I’m asking you about January of 1996. That month?

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Yes, sir. And what about it?

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What non-Microsoft browsers were you concerned about in January of 1996?

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I don’t know what you mean: "concerned".

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What is it about the word "concerned" that you don’t understand?

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I’m not sure what you mean by it.

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We’re going to be working together on Microsoft Office, on Internet Explorer, on Java,

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and I think that it’s going to lead to a very healthy relationship.

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So it’s a package announcement today.

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We’re very, very happy about it, we’re very, very excited about it.

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And I happen to have a special guest with me today via satellite downlink,

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and if we could get him up on the stage right now.

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[CROWD BOOS]

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Police and security guards in Belgium were caught flat-footed today

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by a cowardly sneak attack on one of the world’s wealthiest men.

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The target was Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, arriving for a meeting with community leaders.

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Watch what happens when a team of hit men meet him first with a pie in the face.

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Gates was momentarily and understandably shaken, but he was not injured.

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The hit squad piled on with two more pies before one of them was wrestled to the ground and arrested;

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the others—at least for the moment—got away.

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Gates went inside, wiped his face clean, and made no comment.

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He then went ahead with his scheduled meeting.

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No word on the motive for this attack.

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But, once reviled for the massive wealth and the monopolistic power

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that his virus-laden software afforded him, Gates is now hailed as a visionary

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who is leveraging that wealth and power for the greater good of humanity.

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If in the 22nd century a book will be written about the entrepreneur of the 21st century,

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I’m sure that the person who will foremost come to the mind of those historians is certainly Bill Gates.

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I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Bill Gates is singularly—I would argue—

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the most consequential individual of our generation. I mean that.

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Our next guest is one of the richest and most generous men in the world.

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Please welcome Bill Gates.

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At a time when everyone is looking to understand the scope of the pandemic

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and how to minimizethe threat, one of the best informed voices

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is that of businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates.

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The process by which this reinvention of Gates’ public image took place is not mysterious.

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It’s the same process by which every billionaire has revived their public image

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since John D. Rockefeller hired Ivy Ledbetter Lee to transform him

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from the head of the Standard Oil hydra into the kind old man handing out dimes to strangers.

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Don’t you give a dime, Mr. Rockefeller? Please, go ahead.

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Thank you, sir. Thank you for the ride! I consider myself more than amply paid.

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Bless you! Bless you! Bless you!

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More to the point, John D. Rockefeller knew that to gain the adoration of the public,

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he had to appear to give them what they want: money.

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He devoted hundreds of millions of dollars of his vast oil monopoly fortune

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to establishing institutions that, he claimed, were for the public good.

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The General Education Board. The Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research.

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The Rockefeller Foundation.

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Similarly, Bill Gates has spent much of the past two decades transforming himself

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from software magnate into a benefactor of humanity through his own Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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In fact, Gates has surpassed Rockefeller’s legacy with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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long having eclipsed The Rockefeller Foundation as the largest private foundation in the world,

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with $46.8 billion of assets on its books that it wields in its stated program areas

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of global health and development, global growth, and global policy advocacy.

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And, like Rockefeller, Gates’ transformation has been helped along

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by a well-funded public relations campaign.

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Gone are the theatrical tricks of the PR pioneers—

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the ubiquitous ice cream cones of Gates’ mentor Warren Buffett

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are the last remaining holdout of the old Rockefeller-handing-out-dimes gimmick.

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No, Gates has guided his public image into that of a modern-day saint

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through an even simpler tactic: buying good publicity.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spends tens of millions of dollars per year on media partnerships,

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sponsoring coverage of its program areas across the board.

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Gates funds The Guardian‘s Global Development website.

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Gates funds NPR’s global health coverage. Gates funds the Our World in Data website

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that is tracking the latest statistics and research on the coronavirus pandemic.

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Gates funds BBC coverage of global health and development issues,

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both through its BBC Media Action organization and the BBC itself.

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Gates funds world health coverage on ABC News.

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When the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer was given a $3.5 million Gates foundation grant

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to set up a special unit to report on global health issues,

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NewsHour communications chief Rob Flynn was asked about the potential conflict of interest

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that such a unit would have in reporting on issues that the Gates Foundation is itself involved in.

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"In some regards I guess you might say

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that there are not a heck of a lot of things you could touch in global health these days

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that would not have some kind of Gates tentacle", Flynn responded.

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Indeed, it would be almost impossible to find any area of global health

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that has been left untouched by the tentacles of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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It was Gates who sponsored the meeting that led to the creation of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,

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a global public-private partnership bringing together state sponsors and big pharmaceutical companies,

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whose specific goals include the creation of "healthy markets for vaccines and other immunisation products."

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As a founding partner of the alliance, the Gates Foundation provided $750 million in seed funding

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and has gone on to make over $4.1 billion in commitments to the group.

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Gates provided the seed money that created the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,

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a public-private partnership that acts as a finance vehicle

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for governmental AIDS, TB, and malaria programs.

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When a public-private partnership of governments, world health bodies

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and 13 leading pharmaceutical companies came together in 2012

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"to accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 neglected tropical diseases,"

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there was the Gates Foundation with $363 million of support.

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When the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents was launched in 2015

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to leverage billions of dollars in public and private financing for global health and development programs,

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there was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a founding partner with a $275 million contribution.

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When the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations was launched at the World Economic Forum

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in Davos in 2017 to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases,

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there was the Gates Foundation with an initial injection of $100 million.

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The examples go on and on.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s fingerprints can be seen

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on every major global health initiative of the past two decades.

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And beyond the flashy, billion- dollar global partnerships,

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the Foundation is behind hundreds of smaller country and region-specific grants

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—$10 million to combat a locust infestation in East Africa,

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or $300 million to support agricultural research in Africa and Asia—

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that add up to billions of dollars in commitments.

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It comes as no surprise, then, that

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—far beyond the $250 million that the Gates Foundation has pledged to the "fight" against coronavirus—

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every aspect of the current coronavirus pandemic involves organizations,

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groups and individuals with direct ties to Gates funding.

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From the start, the World Health Organization

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has directed the global response to the current pandemic.

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From its initial monitoring of the outbreak in Wuhan and its declaration in January

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that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission to its live media briefings

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and its technical guidance on country- level planning and other matters,

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the WHO has been the body setting the guidelines and recommendations

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shaping the global response to this outbreak.

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But even the World Health Organization itself is largely reliant on funds

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from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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The WHO’s most recent donor report shows that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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is the organization’s second-largest donor behind the United States government.

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The Gates Foundation single-handedly contributes more to the world health body than Australia,

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Canada, France, Germany, Russia and the UK combined.

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What’s more, current World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

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is, in fact, like Bill Gates himself,  not a medical doctor at all,

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but the controversial ex-Minister of Health of Ethiopia,

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who was accused of covering up three cholera outbreaks in the country during his tenure.

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Before joining the WHO, he served as chair of the Gates-founded Global Fund

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to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and sat on the board of the Gates-founded Gavi,

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the Vaccine Alliance, and the Gates-funded Stop TB Partnership.

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The current round of lockdowns and restrictive stay-home orders in western countries

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was enacted on the back of alarming models predicting millions of deaths in the United States

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and hundreds of thousands in the UK.

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Imperial College in London released a COVID-19 report and that’s where most of our US leaders

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are getting the information they’re basing their decision making on.

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The report runs us through a few different ways this could turn out depending on what our responses are.

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If we don’t do anything to control this virus, over 80% of people in the US

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would be infected over the course of the epidemic, with 2.2 million deaths from COVID-19.

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That 2.2 million deaths also doesn't account for the potential negative effects

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of health systems being overwhelmed.

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From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction:

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you must stay at home.

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Enough is enough. Go home and stay home.

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a statewide order for people to stay at home

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The work of two research groups was crucial in shaping the decision of the UK and US governments

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to implement wide-ranging lockdowns, and, in turn, governments around the world.

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The first group, the Imperial College COVID-19 Research Team, issued a report on March 16th

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that predicted up to 500,000 deaths in the UK and 2.2 million deaths in the US

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unless strict government measures were put in place.

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The second group, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Bill Gates’ home state of Washington,

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helped provide data that corroborated the White House’s initial estimates of the virus’ effects,

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estimates that have been repeatedly downgraded as the situation has progressed.

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Unsurprisingly, the Gates Foundation has injected substantial sums of money into both groups.

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This year alone, the Gates Foundation has already given $79 million to Imperial College,

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and in 2017 the Foundation announced a $279 million investment into the IHME

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to expand its work collecting health data and creating models.

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Anthony Fauci, meanwhile, has become the face of the US government’s coronavirus response,

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echoing Bill Gates’ assertion that the country will not "get back to normal"

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until a "good vaccine" can be found to insure the public’s safety.

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If you want to get to pre-coronavirus, you know, that might not ever happen,

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in the sense of the fact that the threat is there.

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But I believe with the therapies that will be coming online and with the fact that I feel confident

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that over a period of time we will get a good vaccine,

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that we will never have to get back to where we are right now.

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Beyond just their frequent collaborations and cooperation in the past,

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Fauci has direct ties to Gates’ projects and funding.

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In 2010, he was appointed to the Leadership Council of the Gates-founded "Decade of Vaccines" project

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to implement a Global Vaccine Action Plan—a project to which Gates committed $10 billion of funding.

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And in October of last year, just as the current pandemic was beginning,

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the Gates Foundation announced a $100 million contribution to the National Institute of Health

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to help, among other programs,

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Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ research into HIV.

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Also in October of last year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with the World Economic Forum

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and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security to stage Event 201,

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a tabletop exercise gauging the economic and societal impact of a globally-spreading coronavirus pandemic.

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It began in healthy-looking pigs months, perhaps years, ago: a new coronavirus.

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The mission of the pandemic emergency board is to provide recommendations

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to deal with the major global challenges arising in response to an unfolding pandemic.

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The board is comprised of highly experienced leaders from business public health and civil society.

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We’re at the start of what’s looking like it will be a severe pandemic

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and there are problems emerging that can only be solved

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by global business and governments working together.

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Governments need to be willing to do things

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that are out of their historical perspective, or for the most part.

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It’s really a war footing that we need to be on.

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Given the incredible reach that the tentacles of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have

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into every corner of the global health markets, it should not be surprising

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that the foundation has been intimately involved with every stage of the current pandemic crisis, either.

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In effect, Gates has merely used the wealth from his domination of the software market

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to leverage himself into a similar position in the world of global health.

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The whole process has been cloaked in the mantle of selfless philanthropy,

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but the foundation is not structured as a charitable endeavour.

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Instead, it maintains a dual structure:

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the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation distributes money to grantees,

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but a separate entity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, manages the endowment assets.

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These two entities often have overlapping interests, and, as has been noted many times in the past,

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grants given by the foundation often directly benefit the value of the trust’s assets:

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One of my favorite parts of my job at the Gates Foundation is that I get to travel to the developing world,

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and I do that quite regularly.

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My first trip in India, I was in a person’s home where they had dirt floors,

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no running water, no electricity, and that’s really what I see all over the world.

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So in short, I’m startled by all the things that they don’t have.

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But I am surprised by one thing that they do have: Coca-Cola.

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Coke is everywhere.

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In fact, when I travel to the developing world, Coke feels ubiquitous.

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And so when I come back from these trips, and I’m thinking about development, and

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I’m flying home and I’m thinking, we’re trying to deliver condoms to people, or vaccinations, you know?

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Coke’s success kind of stops and makes you wonder:

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How is it that they can get Coke to these far-flung places?

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If they can do that, why can’t governments and NGOs do the same thing?

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And the charity of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda is under criticism

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following the disclosure it’s substantially increased its holdings

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in the agribusiness giant Monsanto to over $23 million.

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Critics say the investment in Monsanto contradicts the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s stated commitment

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to helping farmers and sustainable development in Africa.

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The study from the pressure group Global Justice now paints a picture of the Gates Foundation

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partly as an expression of corporate America’s desire to profit from Africa

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and partly a damning critique of its effects.

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You could have a case where the initial research is done by a Gates-funded institution.

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And the media reporting on how well that research is conducted is done...

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The media outlet is a Gates-funded outlet,

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or maybe a Gates-funded journalist from a media program.

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And then the program is implemented more widely by a Gates-funded NGO.

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I mean, There are some very insular circles here.

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Among the many criticisms: the idea that private finance can solve the problems of the developing world.

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Should poor farmers be trapped into debt by having to use chemicals or fertilizers

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underwritten by offshoot of the foundation?

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This is no mere theoretical conflict of interest.

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Gates is held up as a hero for donating $35.8 billion worth of his Microsoft stock to the foundation,

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but during the course of his "Decade of Vaccines", Gates’ net worth has actually doubled,

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from $54 billion to $103.1 billion.

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The Rockefeller story provides an instructive template for this vision of tycoon-turned-philanthropist.

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When Rockefeller faced a public backlash, he helped spearhead the creation

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of a system of private foundations that connected in with his business interests.

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Leveraging his unprecedented oil monopoly fortune into unprecedented control

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over wide swaths of public life, Rockefeller was able to kill two birds with one stone:

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molding society in his family’s own interests, even as he became a beloved figure in the public imagination.

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Similarly, Bill Gates has leveraged his software empire into a global health, development and education empire,

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steering the course of investment and research

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and ensuring healthy markets for vaccines and other immunization products.

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And, like Rockefeller, Gates has been transformed from the feared and reviled head of a formidable hydra

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into a kindly old man generously giving his wealth back to the public.

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But not everyone has been taken in by this PR trick.

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Even The Lancet observed this worrying transformation from software monopolist

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to health monopolist back in 2009, when the extent of this Gates-led monopoly was becoming apparent to all:

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The first guiding principle of the [Bill & Melinda Gates] Foundation

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is that it is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family."

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An annual letter from Bill Gates summarises those passions, referring to newspaper articles,

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books, and chance events that have shaped the Foundation’s strategy.

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For such a large and influential investor in global health,

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is such a whimsical governance principle good enough?

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This brings us back to the question: Who is Bill Gates?

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What are his driving interests? What motivates his decisions?

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These are not academic questions.

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Gates’ decisions have controlled the flows of billions of dollars, formed international partnerships

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pursuing wide-ranging agendas, ensured the creation of "healthy markets"

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for Big Pharma vaccine manufacturers.

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And now, as we are seeing, his decisions are shaping the entire global response

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to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Next week, we will further explore Gates’ vaccination initiatives, the business interests behind them,

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and the larger agenda that is beginning to take shape as we enter the "new normal" of the COVID-19 crisis.

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And then the final solution, which is a year or two years off, is a vaccine.

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The only thing that will really allow life as we once knew it to resume, is a vaccine.

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This will be the new nornal, until a vaccine is developed.

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The truth is that this attempt to reorient the global health economy was part of a much bigger agenda.

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When we started developing Corona virus vaccines,

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we noticed in laboratory animals that they started to show some of the same immunopathology.

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Just to head-off the conspiracy theorists, maybe we shouldn’t call the vaccine the "final solution".

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Maybe it is the best solution. Good point!