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Bill Gates Releases More Bugs into the World
By Brian | February 8, 2009 | Share on Facebook
Bill Gates, speaking at the always awesome Technology, Entertainment & Design (TED) conference, made a point about the dangers of mosquito-spread malaria by releasing a handful of mosquitoes into the crowd, stating, “There’s no reason that only poor people should be infected,” and then after a few seconds of nervous laughter, telling them that his mosquitoes were malaria free. (The video, which is about twenty minutes long, but well worth the watching, is here).
Some folks were not amused:
Peggy McClure, a retired educator from San Jose who has an uncommon but life threatening allergy to mosquito bites, had this to say:
“I was appalled. I have anaphylactic shock reaction to mosquitoes. I have actually been bitten in Los Angeles County where he did this and had to be hospitalized. Everyday I sleep with a mosquito net in San Jose. Obviously this is wasn’t a very smart idea… to those of us who have to walk around with an EpiPen in our purse every day. I applaud what he’s doing to eradicate malaria. I just think he should realize that live mosquitoes aren’t good.”
Yeah, she’s right. Mr. Gates – it was a cheap stunt that got your talk more publicity than it would otherwise get, but here’s a thought: if the canister you opened turned out to be empty, you’d have made the same point without putting anyone’s health at risk. Maybe next time, ‘mkay?
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