Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has done it again. Months before cases of monkeypox emerged in Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, the United States, and apparently now Argentina, the businessman and businessman had issued a stern warning about this contagious disease.

In November 2021, Gates spoke in a one-on-one interview with British Member of Parliament Jeremy Hunt about possible terrorist attacks involving the smallpox virus. Even then, it provided a potential solution to prevent this from happening.

“Governments around the world would have to play germ games,” he argued. The philanthropist later insisted that if humans lived in constant bond with various bacteria, they would be able to develop greater defensive barriers to fight them and it would be easier to respond to attacks.

“What if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to ten airports? Do you know how the world would react to that?” That was the question the Microsoft founder asked, and answered with an even darker guess: “The outbreaks caused by bioterrorism could be much worse than what we’re experiencing today,” he predicted.

As Gates has done since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, in the final part of the interview, he stressed that world leaders must be prepared to confront any virus that spreads with the intent to harm other people.

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The statements of the technology entrepreneur, which has recently been brought to the agenda by the world media, created an event on social networks. Many users echoed all sorts of conspiracy theories pointing to him behind the current monkeypox epidemic.

Most of these comments were gathered under the hashtags #BillGatesBioTerrorist. [Bill Gates Bioterrorista] and #BillGatesMonkePox [Bill Gates viruela de mono]. They accused him not only of this, but of spreading all kinds of pathogens and of experimenting with third world people for years.

What is monkeypox, how is it spread, and what are the symptoms?

The disease is caused by an orthopox virus from the smallpox family, the first disease to be eradicated by humans thanks to vaccines. Although it can also be found in rodents, it is called monkey because it was discovered in these animals in 1958.

The main route of infection is from wild animals to humans. To become infected between humans, there must be close contact involving the exchange of bodily fluids (mucous membranes, wounds, sexual fluids). It can also be transmitted through contact with objects containing traces of liquid.

Symptoms are similar to smallpox, but slightly milder. It starts with fever, muscle aches and headaches. One to three days after the fever, a skin rash occurs that first affects the face and then spreads to the rest of the body. The most affected areas are the head, hands and feet.