This clip is from February but I figured if I missed it then you probably did to. At the influential TED conference, Bill Gates explains how we can impede global warming—reduce the number of people through “new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services.”
Here is the exact quote: “The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s heading up to about nine billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”
Um, what kind of vaccines does he have in mind that reduce the population?
October 6th, 2010 | 9:13 am
I’m going to venture that he means that vaccines contribute to better well-being, so people feel less pressure to have more children in order to continue the family name. Or, perhaps he means the link between higher educational attainment and lower fertility: if people are vaccinated, and they don’t have to worry so much about their well-being, then they tend to seek more educational and employment opportunity, and that tends to lead to their being less fertile.
That’s just a guess, because I don’t think he meant sterilization. But boy, that does sound weird…
October 6th, 2010 | 10:49 am
Of such things are third world conspiracy theories born…perhaps rightly so.
October 6th, 2010 | 10:51 am
[...] 2010.October.6 by ryangeer in Posts from other blogs 0 Ran across an article at First Things (http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/10/06/vaccines-to-reduce-the-population/) about Bill Gates’ philanthropic activities… Through the video there, I ran into this [...]
October 6th, 2010 | 11:02 am
It is obvious that vaccines don’t reduce populations. The increase them. So what gives?
This is what Gates said: “Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”
This is what Gates probably meant: ““Now if we do a really great job increasing contraception and abortion we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”
What he said is just more politically expedient than what he meant.
The irony, of course, is that the real ticking population bomb is global de-population that has already kicked in some places (Japan, Russia, Singapore), and will kick in everywhere after 2050. The modern welfare state absolutely depends on a population pyramid, and that pyramid is about to be turned on its head with cataclysmic consequences we can only imagine.
October 6th, 2010 | 12:07 pm
While Bill Gates skipped a few steps, and deserves lower marks for not showing all his work, there actually is exactly this form of connection between vaccines and population.
Vaccines reduce mortality, especially among children. Families in many nations depend on having many children, not merely to carry on the family name, but as a form of support when accident, illness or old age strike. If your kids are 98% likely to be around to take care of you (and each other) one day, you can have fewer. But if each child only has, say, a 60% chance to be around, due to higher mortality rates, you must err on the side of caution and have more kids that you technically *need* for this economic purpose, as a kind of insurance.
Vaccines don’t mean killing people, they mean lower mortality rates, which means lower birth rates thanks to the reduction of the risk factors that drive higher birth rates. There are many other factors, of course, such as moral and religious values, and other forms of social structure that distribute risk (such as social services), that affect this particular pattern of human behaviour, but there is no question that this link is real.
October 6th, 2010 | 12:28 pm
I don’t understand why a computer geek, college drop-out, nouveau riche, suddenly feels the urge to become a public health advisor, and a population savant!
In the name of God, someone tell the Gate-o-like and Cruise-o-like to stick at doing what they do best.
The stuff that comes out of their mouth!!!
October 6th, 2010 | 2:46 pm
Bill Gates is just referring to the improved health and reduced child mortality that will lead to reduced fertility over the long run.
Global fertility decline is real.
Google “global fertility rate” and click on the first link that comes up. You can play around by deselecting “global” and selecting various countries.
Only sub-Saharan Africa still has high fertility.
October 6th, 2010 | 7:16 pm
He’s a chip off the old block. Energetic minion for the culture of death. He has the means to be much more destructive than his father was as a leader in Planned Parenthood.
Everyone knows abortion is the single most important prop of the culture of death. Revealing of his mindset that he has, with all his means, gravitated to the single most anti-Christian activity he could possibly be involved in.
Africa is where Christianity is growing rapidly so where the future is; as a potent tool of a deeply malign movement he is driven to make a powerful impression there.
October 6th, 2010 | 8:59 pm
They are talking about the Anti HCG vaccine that destroys the hormone that allows pregnancy to continue.
Rumors that this was included in tetanus vaccine (or other modern vaccines) is the reason that many poor women refused to get a tetanus shot to prevent neonatal tetanus, alas
.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15212672
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