Confirmed: Bill Gates is truly ahead of his time.

[slip]

I should have noted this as well in my earlier post - a recent event that brought this back to light for me was watching a recent press conference. The politician(s) doing the press conference were spouting off about medical issues and topics they have no experience in (with). Medical experts were available - why were they not at the podium?

We have a CDC and it appears many politicians seem to think they know more about medical issues than the CDC.
I have the electorate remembers these people come the next election.

That happens sometimes at these press conferences. Sometimes the professional speaks and sometimes the politician speaks.

He/she is a representative and they summarize what they found out. I don’t think they are claiming to be smarter than the professional. You either believe your representative or you don’t. That’s your decision.

 

[PigsDad]

Those are the people we need to be listening to.

And Bill Gates speaking about the research by those experts "will draw more attention to them (Bill Gates) and attention away from the people we should be listening to"? This is where I disagree with you. First off, I don't think Bill Gates does all the work he does in the world health arena just to "draw more attention" to himself. Second, someone with the "celebrity status" (although I hate using that phrase) of a Bill Gates can draw more worldwide attention to a topic than an expert on that topic -- even if the message is exactly the same. And that is what Bill is doing in many of these cases -- using his status as a public figure to promote the research and ideas. Nowhere have I seen any evidence that he does this work to promote himself. But by your comments, you think he does. That is where we differ.

Kurt

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I was never much of a fan of Bill Gates when he ran Microsoft. However I admire how he has chosen to dedicate his energy and money in the second half of his life to solving grand challenges. He is a deep thinker and spends his brain power on ways to solve problems rather than sitting on a private beach.

Sometimes a solution comes from a different perspective so I would not discount the fact that he is not an epidemiologist. As a former CEO he can bring people together to solve a problem which may be faster than a single scientist on a grant toiling alone in a lab.

 

[b2bailey]

I should have noted this as well in my earlier post - a recent event that brought this back to light for me was watching a recent press conference. The politician(s) doing the press conference were spouting off about medical issues and topics they have no experience in (with). Medical experts were available - why were they not at the podium?

We have a CDC and it appears many politicians seem to think they know more about medical issues than the CDC.
I have the electorate remembers these people come the next election.

Just want to let you know I was never a fan of Bill Gates while he was heading up MSFT. I was an employee at one of his competitors in 1990 and watched some ugly stuff up close and personal.

However, he married a good woman and I choose to believe he was able to change. He is a brilliant mind and I would respect his opinion on most anything.