Bill Gates did not say he wants to 'vaccinate animals to give them better genetics'
Last updated on: 16 January,2023 10:45 am
Bill Gates did not say he wants to 'vaccinate animals to give them better genetics'
(Reuters) - People on social media saying Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates wants to “vaccinate animals to give them better genetics” are misstating what he said in an interview about initiatives with farm animals.
Posts online (here) (here), (here) shows a 37-second video of Gates saying:
“The Gates Foundation has partnered with DFID on a great number of things and, among those, are work we do together on livestock. Helping animals survive either by having vaccines or better genetics, helping them be more productive. It’s making a big difference. I was down in Ethiopia seeing how chickens are there, laying more eggs, getting more nutrition and even some small savings into the household. Edinburgh happens to be where a lot of the world’s best work on this is done, and that’s why DFID and the Gates Foundation are funding scientists here.”
Similar versions of the clip were posted on Twitter by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) (later replaced by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) and the University of Edinburgh in Jan. 2018 (here), (here).
The posts on social media say, “Bill Gates wants to ‘vaccinate’ animals to give them better genetics” – but in the clip, Gates says “helping animals survive either by having vaccines or better genetics.” He does not say that “better genetics” would be achieved through vaccination.
When contacted about these claims, the FCDO directed Reuters to this distinction in the wording used by Gates.
According to an article published in 2018 by the University of Edinburgh (here), the work of improving genetics for livestock can involve scientists collecting data from animals that thrive in certain environments in order to find out what sets them apart. This allows them to identify the best animals to use for breeding.
The Gates Foundation told Reuters the claim circulating online is false, pointed to examples such as those listed in the University of Edinburgh’s article above.
VERDICT
False. Bill Gates did not say he wants to “vaccinate animals to give them better genetics” in a video circulating online.