PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2020-05-01 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did Bill Gates Tell George Magazine That an 'Over-Populated Planet' Would Fall to a 'Lung-Attacking Virus'? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • In April 2020, as conspiracy theories swirled about former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates' alleged connections to the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, images supposedly showing an eerie quote ostensibly uttered by him circulated on social media. Text from a February 1997 issue of George magazine was presented in such a way that suggested Gates had said an over-populated planet would be choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus: Practically the only thing connecting Gates to the quote in this image is the neon green line drawn between them. The above-displayed images are both genuine and both come from the February 1997 issue of George, a magazine founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and published between 1995 and 2001. Although this issue does feature a lengthy interview with Gates, the quote featured here comes from an entirely different article. The February 1997 issue of George magazine included a Survival Guide to the Future that featured various commentators describing how the world was now and providing their thoughts on what the world would be like in 2020. The actual article, titled A Nation's Future Foretold, was divided into themed sections such as transportation, education, environment, crime, warfare, and food. The quote shown in the viral image comes from the disease section of this article. Here's a screenshot from a digital copy of the magazine, which more clearly shows the author of this text: The end of the article comes after a page break, where you can read the pull-quote in context: Gates did not write that an over-populated planet would be choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus. This article was actually written by poet and science writer Arno Karlen. However, social media users did find an actual quote from Gates in this issue of George that they presented as equally controversial as the lung-attacking virus quote. A second image showing an excerpt from this issue appears to show Gates talking about funding population control: This, again, is a genuine image from the February 1997 issue of George magazine. And this time, it is a genuine quote from Gates. He made this comment shortly after he was asked about how he keeps his personal opinions separate from his business decisions: While this quote is often shared as if it revealed some secret and nefarious plot from the former Microsoft CEO, the truth is a bit more mundane. This quote was widely circulated by those who adhere to the idea that Gates was using the COVID-19 pandemic to give himself an opportunity to microchip the population via vaccines. The above-displayed quote shows, according to proponents of this conspiracy theory, that Gates has long been planning to take control of the global population. We took a deeper look into the ID2020 conspiracy theory here. However, the term population control isn't as literal as it may seem in this context. This term was widely used in the 1970s and '80s, but it fell out of fashion in the '90s and was replaced by terms such as reproductive health, family planning, and women's empowerment. In writing about the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, the Christian Science Monitor noted a major philosophical difference between that year's conference and conferences from years past: Gates' quote in this 1997 interview may have been a bit outdated, but it was not indicative of a nefarious plot to enslave humankind. Rather, Gates was noting his charitable work with global organizations that support reproductive health programs. For example, in 1997, the year this interview was published, the Gates Foundation awarded a $2.2 million grant to Johns Hopkins University to support the Institute for Population and Reproductive Health to strengthen leadership and institutions in the developing countries. Two years later in 1999, Bill and Melinda Gates donated $2.2 billion to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Forbes explored Gates' thinking on population control in a 2011 profile: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url