But Gates is not "every billionaire, politician, celebrity, and crackpot on the planet" on this issue. He stepped away from day to day involvement in Microsoft in 2008, and it seems that since then his major focus has been his foundation. Global health is one of the main focuses of that organization.

That's a bit different from some random celebrity weighing in.

It should also be clear to everyone now that pandemics are not solely an infectious diseases issue. Presumably Gates could bring a valuable perspective on science-adjacent issues like governance, financing and global cooperation.

You can absolutely disagree with his views on this topic (and maybe should), but it's unfair to write him off as some dilettante.

(edit: Also you should absolutely question how he came to have this level of wealth and influence in global health.)

I am very open to critiquing Bill Gates (and other personally wealthy folks disregarding experts in a messianical manner), but isn't this kind of what he spends all of his time on now (malaria, ebola, etc.)? From the article itself, he links to a TED talk he gave about epidemics in 2015, as well as a paper he had published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It has been a hobby of his for some time. Although he hasn't credentialed that knowledge. It doesn't mean his opinion is moot, just that people should examine his points through research of their own and not just appeal to his 'authority'.

I've seen interviews with infectious disease experts and other health experts including research scientists in those fields that the Gates foundation deals with, and they have said that Gates has put in years of serious effort to understand these things at a deep level, including hiring experts to teach him, and when they discuss their work and projects with him it is like discussing it with a fellow scientist.

I totally agree about Gates. However I would add that public health experts and medical doctors are very different. Doctors generally make for terrible public health policy advisors! It's a very different set of skills and way of thinking about health systems.

I think this one is overblown. If Gates wanted to learn about viruses all the worlds bleeding edge experts are in his reach. I would be charitable and assume he took advantage of that. If so he can be a lot more educated about the subject than any doctor.

Jeffrey Epstein really enjoyed the fact that wealth implies general intelligence and insight to a lot of people. Also the fact that if a rich guy wears a Harvard sweatshirt, a lot of people will insist he must have gone to Harvard without ever being asked to.

"Well he's dead so....." that is the most epic/telling statement I believe Bill Gates has every made.

Gates comments on Epstein on NPR, I don't have a link, but Google and YouTube have the details.

Gates another question for you, what's with all the farmland you now own in the US? The world doesn't need another Monsanto's. Seems fishy! Somethings afoot with that. Farming is not that profitable, so what's his interest in it?

Agreed. I don't think this a cosplay, especially within the context of all the work his foundation has done to save lives around the world from a pragmatic numbers based approach.

That's a possibility, I hope it's not more a marketing stunt than a real effort (I assume he cares since he talked about that long ago).

Also, him being a used high profile spokesperson, is used to be under the light, maybe not all epidemiologists want that or can handle the fuss. Maybe he can bridge the two and have international panels with experts being set up.

It makes him an expert at making money, which perhaps maps to being good at contract negotiation, government influence, business Management etc... (But not infectious diseases)

March 2015: https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re...

He could have used the TED platform to talk about anything, and he chose to raise the alarm bell about pandemic preparedness. A fairly niche and unpopular topic at the time.

Money gives you access to experts and lets you hire them. Bill Gates takes liberal advantage of this.

That he invested heavily into both Moderna and BioNTech before the pandemic gives him lots of credibility.