新冠病毒的阴谋论调又来了：这回主角是比尔·盖茨

图源：CGTN视频

上周六，美国得克萨斯州奥斯汀民众举行集会活动，抗议疫情期间的“居家令”，并且要求重启经济复工。网上视频显示，有民众打着“疫情是骗局”的标语，同时高喊“逮捕比尔·盖茨”。

Protesters gathered at the Capitol in Austin Saturday afternoon to rally against local stay-at-home orders and to demand Texas businesses reopen. Videos circulating online at the rally show protesters holding signs calling the coronavirus pandemic a hoax and shouting "arrest Bill Gates."

视频来源：环球时报新媒体

疫情跟比尔·盖茨又有啥关系？《纽约时报》的一篇分析文章道出其中原委：盖茨与特朗普面对疫情上的意见不合，导致他成为美国右翼分子攻击的目标。



《纽约时报》分析指出，比尔·盖茨对于如何抗击新冠疫情的立场，使得他最近成为了网上阴谋论者大举攻击的目标。

Bill Gates' vocal stance on how to combat the coronavirus has made him a massive target of online conspiracy theorists, a New York Times analysis suggested.

文章中写道，在油管、脸书和推特等平台上，盖茨被错误地塑造为新冠肺炎的“制造者”，病毒疫苗的“获利者”，甚至说他卑鄙地利用疫情监视、杀害全球民众。

In posts on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, he is being falsely portrayed as the creator of Covid-19, as a profiteer from a virus vaccine, and as part of a dastardly plot to use the illness to cull or surveil the global population.

福布斯和商业内幕等外国媒体网站也注意到盖茨成为了阴谋论的目标。




据《纽约时报》报道，同时，这样的言论还特别有“市场”：媒体分析公司Zignal Labs发现，今年年初病毒暴发后，有关盖茨制造病毒的言论同样“暴发”，在社交媒体和电视广播中总共提到120多万次。

The media analysis company Zignal Labs found that posts on social media falsely claiming that the Microsoft founder engineered the virus had exploded since the beginning of this year. In total, Zignal Labs found that conspiracy theories involving Gates and the virus had been mentioned 1.2 million times on social media and TV broadcasts, The New York Times said.

《纽约时报》的文章还指出，尤其是最近，盖茨对白宫处理疫情问题的评论尖锐。

Especially since Mr. Gates has sharpened his comments about the White House’s handling of the coronavirus in recent weeks.

3月31日，盖茨在《华盛顿邮报》的专栏中写道：“毫无疑问美国错过了提前应对疫情的好机会。如今，我们和我们的领导人们所做的选择，将对病例数量多快能下降、经济要停摆多久以及多少美国人会失去挚爱亲人产生很大影响。”

“There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus,” he wrote in an opinion column in The Washington Post on March 31. “The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of Covid-19.”

2015年，盖茨曾在一场演讲中表示，未来几十年里，如果有什么东西能威胁无数人的生命，那更可能是有高度传染性的病毒，而不是战争。这样的“预言”最近几周在油管上又火了起来，浏览量超过2500万次，只不过可能不是盖茨所期望的那样。

In a 2015 speech, Bill Gates warned that the greatest risk to humanity was not war but an infectious virus that could threaten the lives of millions of people. That speech has resurfaced in recent weeks with 25 million new views on YouTube — but not in the way that Mr. Gates probably intended.


图源：盖茨演讲视频

演讲中盖茨还说道，面对新疫情时准备不利，可能导致比埃博拉病毒更大规模的灾难。人们可能在感觉良好的情况感染病毒，可能在飞机上，或者在商场里。

"The failure to prepare could allow the next epidemic to be dramatically more devastating than ebola," he said. "You can have a virus where people feel well enough while they're infectious that they get on a plane, or they go to a market."

《商业内幕》网站指出，盖茨的猜测与当今新冠病毒有相似之处：有无症状感染者，症状也可能潜伏14天或更久。

Indeed, that is exactly the case with the novel coronavirus — symptoms of the disease don't necessarily manifest for up to 14 days, and potentially longer.

然而，这样的“预言”，成为了攻击者认为盖茨早有打算的“证据”。

针对这样的论调，盖茨在本月初接受央视采访时就表明了自己的态度：很讽刺，尤其是对于那些尽全力帮助世界做好应对疫情准备的人来说。

"I'd say it's ironic if you take somebody who's doing their best to get the world ready," Gates responded regarding the accusation that he's the creator of the virus.



综合来源：央视新闻，环球网，CGTN，Business Insider，New York Times，Statesman.com，Forbes