Posted on 02/05/2009 3:48:50 PM PST by Askwhy5times
Should Bill Gates be prosecuted?
Bill Gates released a swarm of potentially deadly mosquitoes at a technology conference and yelled, 'There's no reason only poor people should get malaria'. What an idiot. While it is unlikely these mosquitoes were malaria carriers, there are a host of other potentially fatal diseases that mosquitoes carry. Among these diseases are various forms of encephalitis and West Nile virus that are common among North American Mosquitoes. My granddaughter got La Crosse encephalitis from mosquitoes a few years ago. She spent several very scary days in pediatric intensive care. Anyone who would deliberately release these potentially deadly disease carriers in an enclosed area, occupied by people, should be charged with criminal negligence. If someone deliberately released poisonous snakes at a conference and yelled, 'Rural people aren't the only ones who should get bit,' they would be arrested. Bill Gates endangered the people at that conference and should pay for his crime. He should not get a free pass because he has billions of dollars.
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There is a photograph of him releasing them and saying he wants them to bite people. They don’t have to actually bite someone anymore than a drunk driver has to kill someone for it to be a crime.
PETA should be all over his ass for endangering those mosquitoes.
Actually it was an act of terrorism by any real definition. It would have been no differnt than if he had a cardboard box on the stage and said ‘There is no reason why just the poor have to die from land mines...’ and then opened the box.
Bill Gates should be prosecuted.
They probably were clean samples, however this was a horribly negligent and incredibly arrogant stunt by Gates. He may have made his point, but a public apology should be the minimum repentance, if not some sort of gift to those who feel they were unfairly treated. I'm hardly one that sympathizes with those who instantly scream "victim", but this was pretty outrageous, unnecessary, and unacceptable.
The reason we have very few cases of malaria in the US (as I heard when an entomologist/mosquito expert gave a talk) is that we have air conditioners and tend to be indoors when most of the malaria-carrying mosquitoes are out and about. Our lifestyles aren't conducive to the spreading of malaria. There are a few cases every year, though, about 15.
I thought this was about that damned “ribbon” on Office 2007. He deserves jail time for doing that.
Think of the irony (and the justice) of Gates contracting a disease carried by one of his mosquitoes. He’s an ass.
Some one should pump few rounds at his house at the Reserve.
Poor people shouldn’t be the only ones to experience drive bys.
www.thereservecountryclub.com
Sounds like a terrorist threat to me.
How is this different from sending out envelopes with white powder and saying “you will die soon”?
But of course nothing will happen. He’s rich, you know! Laws are for the little people.
” that we have air conditioners and tend to be indoors when most of the malaria-carrying mosquitoes are out and about”
Most importantly, mosquitos aren’t born with Malaria. They have to have a blood meal from someone who already is already infected. The way yellow fever were eliminated when we built the panama canal was to first eradicate all the mosquitos which were capable of carrying yellow fever (only certain types can carry it). Once we eliminated the mosquitos then the yellow fever disease disappeared. After that, the mosquitos only had to be controlled since there were no yellow fever sufferers around to contaminate the mosquitos. Since mosquitos have a very small range I’m not sure how Malaria could be spread in US unless the 15 cases you mentioned are mostly contained in a very small area and contain an individual who is a carrier from a previous contamination. I think a person who has had malaria carries it for the rest of their lives. That is true in some types of malaria, anyway.
Maybe not the brightest thing for Bill to do, but this fear of encephalitis and West Nile was an overreaction.
At most they could have been a carrier for diseases among people in the room.
While unlikely, it is still possible, which is why it is unacceptable behavior by Gates. COMPLETELY unacceptable, and outrageous. People have enough concerns in their life already, without having to worry about some billionaire using them as a prop to make a point about disease. Gates contributions to the world have done a lot of good, but that doesn't give him the right to negatively impact if not possibly jeapordize the lives of ANYONE. Even if it was only mental trauma that they suffered, it was unnecessary, and abusive, and extremely arrogant of Gates to subject them to it, calling into question his supposed care for the well being of others, therefore destructive of his own reputation as well, making it all ultimately ignorant.
I was criticizing the overreaction about the mosquitoes being carriers for diseases, and, no, arrest is not warranted (pun intended). Whether it was a smart move overall is a different matter.
Bill Gates got them from his bottomless supply of bugs.
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