Oligarch of the Month: Bill Gates
Gates was a lovable nerd who was out to save the world. Now, he’s a tech supervillain who wants to protect profits over public health.
But in just a few short weeks in May, his image as a goofy do-gooder came crashing down. Suddenly, Gates was attracting criticism not only for the shadowy board of directors he had installed at the foundation—which has a habit of doling out money to pharmaceutical and credit card companies—but also for his response to the pandemic. Gates pledgedalmost $2 billion to develop Covid-19 tests, vaccines, and treatments in 2020. But as The New Republic reported in April, he insisted on preserving intellectual property claims that inhibited a more equitable distribution of vaccines and privileged Big Pharma over global health. The news that he and Melinda were divorcing took the PR imbroglio from bad to worse. In May, The New York Times reported that Gates had pursued extramarital relationships that earned him a reputation of “questionable behavior”around women. He had also struck up a friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, whose lifestyle Gates called “kind of intriguing” in an email to colleagues in 2011. (Gates’s spokeswoman said the billionaire was referring only to the garish “decor” in Epstein’s cavernous Upper East Side mansion—an excuse flimsier than a floppy disk.)
https://newrepublic.com/article/162598/bill-gates-oligarch-month-vaccines
