Bill Gates & Elon Musk on COVID‑19
Having millions of followers on social media is power. Power to do marketing for your organizations, to affect others' thinking on the world. Having a voice is also a responsibility towards those who are listening to you [1]. And there is a difference, which is a huge difference, between how the two tech titans, Bill Gates and Elon Musk manifested about COVID‑19 in the past months. It is about humanity and emotional intelligence at the same time. In the post, I try to highlight how misinformation can be spread by social media and how can one use its voice to help the fight against global threats like novel coronavirus. Let's see how many people can be potentially reached by the thoughts of the two business magnates.
| Twitter followers | Ranked | |
|---|---|---|
| Elon Musk (@elonmusk) | 47 455 683 | 27th |
| Bill Gates (@BillGates) | 53 797 250 | 19th |
| ... | ... | ... |
| Barack Obama (@BarackObama) | 129 581 042 | 1st |
Followers reached on Twitter (Data retrieved on 20th February 2021)
According to the list of most-followed Twitter accounts both of them have a huge number of followers, compared to Barack Obama they almost have half of the number. On the list of TOP50, they are the only two people who are not professional musicians, actors/actresses, politicians.
[1] I am not naive and aware that my voice reaches very few but it doesn't matter. One is responsible for all his/her audience whether it is personal or online communication.
A dumb virus in which "everybody dies"
Just before COVID-19 started to get serious in March 2020 Musk showed skepticism towards the virus and bagatelle it with his Twitter post saying The coronavirus panic is dumb
. At first glance, he could refer to the panic-buying of the toilet paper or suggesting to stay calm regardless of the danger but later replies on the thread made his skepticism clear about the topic.
Business Insider dedicated an article for Musk's comments on COVID-19, these are mostly from bagatelle the virus to the disapproval of the stay home orders.
His tweet about "children are immune to novel coronavirus" was requested to be taken down, but Twitter confirmed it will stay on the platform as it "did not break the rules when taken in the context of the conversation and other tweets" according to them.
About shelter-in-place orders aimed to stop the spread of the virus Musk stated the following in Tesla’s Q1 2020 earnings call last April:
[I]f somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great, they should be allowed to stay in the house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.
So the expansion of the shelter in place or as frankly I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes, against all their constitutional rights, but that’s my opinion, and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong, and not why people came to America or built this country. What the f**k. Excuse me. It’s outrage, it’s an outrage. It will cause great harm not just to Tesla, but to many companies. And while Tesla will weather the storm there are many small companies that will not.
Musk later in September 2020 told Kara Swisher in an interview that he and his kids would not take a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available, as he said they are not at risk.
When Swisher confronted Musk that without the lockdowns criticized by him many people would die, he replied:
Everybody dies.
Safety-first
At the same time, Gates hit a calmer tone about the virus and emphasized a safety-first approach on his blog.
Gates talked about the spread of misinformation on social media in an interview with CNBC in July 2020, where he named Musk as well:
Elon's positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments. He’s not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he’s allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn’t confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.
Gates shared a photo about his vaccination with the following message in January 2021:
Conspiracy theories
What also differs is how the two of them are received by virus skeptics. Bill Gates is in the crossfire of conspiracy theories for years so it was not surprising that he has become the one to implant microchips into people with vaccines. While Elon Musk was rather shared conspiracies about the virus himself he has been no victim of any theories such as Gates.
Both Musk and Gates have acted as a savior of mankind for years. One of them tries to make humanity multi-planetary, the other fights for normal toilets, sewers, and wastewater treatment systems in the developing countries.
The pandemic has highlighted that tech titans can do a lot to save the world even in the present if they can spread scientifically valid views among their followers. We, as followers, residents of this planet should decide if we trust their words in these hard times or if we listen to only things that are easy to hear.
Such outbreak was not unexpected for scientists for years, even Gates has talked about it in 2015:
If anything kills over 10 million people over the next few decades, it is likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than war.
Recommended articles:
- Bill Gates and Elon Musk Just Issued Very Different Responses to the Coronavirus. It's a Lesson in Emotional Intelligence by Justin Bariso In: Inc., 9th March 2020
- How Bill Gates became the voodoo doll of Covid conspiracies by Jane Wakefield In: bbc.com, 5th June 2020
- Bill Gates: Unlike Elon Musk, I’m not a Mars person In: CNBC.com, 16th February 2021
- Coronavirus Data - worldometers.info Retrieved: 21st February 2021