0: bill gates co-founded microsoft nearly

2: 50 years ago at the forefront of the

4: computer age that changed the world and

6: since then he's been using the fortune

8: that earned him to change the world the

10: gates foundation giving away tens of

12: billions of dollars over the past decade

14: he also famously predicted the world was

17: unprepared for a pandemic in a 2015 ted

20: talk that was unfortunately accurate and

22: has been viewed now 43 million times

25: well he's sounding the alarm again this

27: morning his new book how to prevent the

29: next pandemic

30: is out today it's also been a year of

32: upheaval in his own life after he and

34: melinda his wife of 27 years announced

36: their divorce one year ago today so bill

38: we have so much to catch up on it's good

40: to see you good morning good to see you

41: well i think this is the definition of

43: what they call a hard sell you're out

45: here promoting a book how to prevent the

47: next pandemic and you know people are

48: sick and tired of hearing about the

50: pandemic they have covid fatigue why is

53: this the moment to have this

54: conversation

55: well i don't want us to wait uh until we

58: forget about how awful this has been i

61: mean we've had tens of millions of

62: deaths you know trillions of dollars of

64: economic loss

66: education loss mental depression

69: uh and with a few key steps we can make

72: sure this won't happen again there's

74: something strangely optimistic about

75: this book you've got a whole bunch of

77: ideas on how to actually prevent the

80: next pandemic one idea you compare it to

82: firefighters we need kind of a global

84: firefighting team that's ready to

88: find the next pandemic and respond to it

90: how would it work

92: well in firefighting we're all trained

94: to know that you know there's the exit

97: the us alone has over 300 000 full-time

100: firefighters so we take it seriously

102: because if one house burns down it can

105: uh you know affect an entire community

108: pandemics are even worse and we didn't

110: practice we weren't ready to go a few

113: countries that were more ready

115: like australia have 10 percent the

117: deaths that we have so

119: uh the debate about exactly how to

121: invest in that preparedness now is the

124: right time even though we're still

126: trying to get out of this one yeah

127: you've argued that basically pandemics

130: um

130: disease is inevitable but pandemics are

132: not and if you spend billions now you

134: save trillions later is that a pretty

136: good summary of the book yep tell me a

138: big return tell me about um

140: you have this germ team that you propose

143: we have the world health organization

144: why isn't that enough well they're not

146: funded actually uh to go to countries

149: and practice they're not funded to fly

152: in where there's an outbreak so they

154: need about a billion a year 3 000 more

157: people

157: that would stay dedicated to pandemics

160: you know pandemics don't come very often

162: so it's easy to to take your personnel

165: and go work on other things and here

167: we'd make sure that this team had those

169: skills and was always practicing by the

171: way in some ways we were lucky with this

173: pandemic it certainly could have been a

175: more contagious virus and it could could

177: have been more lethal

178: yeah the lethality uh you know ends up

181: being about 0.3 percent uh smallpox is

184: 30 percent so

187: this is not the worst case all the more

189: reason

190: to make these investments in

192: preparedness when you look at how the

194: u.s and the world responded to covet 19.

198: whether it's masks or vaccines or

201: shutdowns closures it's become so

204: political i wonder if if it happened

206: again if it was march 2020 all over

208: again with covet 19 would we even be

211: able to mount as effective a response as

213: we did last time around it's been so

216: politicized yeah it's unfortunate that

218: uh

220: we didn't get trusted voices in both

222: parties talking about the benefit of

224: masks and vaccines

226: so that it wasn't a political issue i

229: think everybody does support the health

231: workers who are heroes

233: i think they support the innovation

235: where we got the vaccine out faster

238: than ever before and that has saved

241: millions of lives even that vaccine we

243: can make a better one where you never

245: get infected uh

247: so

248: you know innovation uh like in many

251: areas is where i see a potential for a

254: consensus and for avoiding most of the

257: damage yeah the book if you want to geek

259: out on some of the innovations and where

260: the technology is a vaccine you can

262: inhale a pan vaccine it's in there but

265: let's talk about misinformation because

267: that has been a hallmark unfortunately

270: of this pandemic president biden rather

272: famously said last july that

274: misinformation on social media is

276: killing people do you agree absolutely

279: uh it's been weird that you know

282: vaccines have been attacked as you know

284: being overall that negative or there's

286: some conspiracy here it's terrible well

288: some of it affects you you're part of

290: these conspiracy theories that is a very

293: weird thing that just because i support

295: vaccines save millions of lives people

298: are saying no i you know i make money

300: from vaccines or that i'm trying to you

302: know cause death or track or

305: uh a lot of strange stuff

307: hard to understand why that is well you

310: know misinformation is obviously a big

312: issue that a lot of folks like you are

313: worried about

314: elon musk just recently announced moves

317: to acquire twitter i wonder if you are

320: concerned about the proliferation of

322: misinformation given some of his views

323: about

324: expanding what he refers to as free

326: speech on twitter and what you think of

327: the acquisition

329: well the digital realm has facilitated

332: you know kind of

334: interesting but wrong ideas spreading

336: very quickly and we need to innovate so

339: that digital realm is more of a positive

342: thing of getting the truth out and that

344: people are seeing hey this is false do

346: you worry about elon musk well elon

349: you wouldn't want to underestimate elon

350: what he did at tesla is amazing helping

353: with climate change what he did at

354: spacex uh you know will he this time

359: make that improvement you know should

360: there be laws that strike a better

362: balance of uh free speech versus you

366: know conspiracy theories confusing

368: people um

370: you know elon thinks he can improve

372: twitter well

373: i don't i don't know specifically what

375: it'll do but uh

377: you know it it

379: it is there's an opportunity and we need

381: innovation in that space well let's talk

383: about you personally it's been a period

386: of transition it was actually one year

387: ago today that you and your wife melinda

390: filed for divorce how have you been

393: coming to terms with this

395: well the divorce is definitely a sad

397: thing uh

399: you know i

400: have responsibility for

402: causing a lot of pain to my family

404: um

406: you know it was a tough year i feel good

408: that uh

410: all of us are moving forward now you

412: know my oldest got married uh melinda

415: and i are you know continuing to work

417: together so

418: um

419: you know it was sad and tragic but uh

423: you know now we're

425: we're

426: moving together yeah she did an

428: interview recently and she talked about

430: times in her marriage she said she was

432: lying on the floor

433: crying

434: um what was it like for you to hear that

436: and to hear it publicly

437: well

439: this was a

440: a very tough thing we had

442: a lot of amazing things in our marriage

445: the kids the foundation uh the enjoyment

448: we had uh

450: and so it's a very hard adjustment uh

454: you know i know divorces are different

456: but uh you know just a complete change

460: you know we were partners we kind of

462: grew up together um and now that

465: that's different we're not married

467: frankly there were allegations of

469: extramarital affairs and when she was

471: asked about that in the interview she

473: said that is a question that bill needs

475: to answer

476: so here you are now did that happen were

478: you unfaithful in your marriage is that

480: one of the reasons there was a divorce i

482: certainly made mistakes and i i take

484: responsibility i don't think delving

486: into the particulars at this point is is

489: constructive but yes

490: uh i

492: um

493: caused pain

494: and i i feel terrible about that

497: what have you learned from that i mean

499: you were someone who has this voracious

501: appetite for knowledge and divorce is an

504: experience that can be a journey to

506: learning something about yourself and

508: change hopefully what have you learned

510: about yourself

518: you know

518: there's areas like

520: climate or you know health where i i

523: have expertise and on personal matters

525: like this i

527: i'm

528: you know i

530: i don't think of myself as an expert i

533: uh should be very humble about

536: you know success uh

538: you know has a a tricky aspect to it um

543: so

544: you know i don't i don't have great

545: advice for other people yeah um i have

548: to ask you about jeffrey epstein

550: melinda mentioned that that was one of

552: the strains your relationship with him

554: and um you know what i guess the

556: question is real simple i mean why did

558: you continue to meet with him when you

560: met him he was already a convicted sex

563: offender um

564: you know and do you regret that

566: i certainly

568: made a huge mistake uh not only meet him

571: in the first place but

572: i met with him a number of times

576: i had a goal of raising money for global

578: health i didn't realize that in a

581: meeting with him

583: almost downplayed

585: the incredibly awful things he did you

588: know i learned more about that over time

589: but uh you know i'd add that to the list

592: of big mistakes including you know where

594: melinda's advice was sound and i i

597: should have followed it sooner than i

599: did and you never saw anything where you

601: thought

602: this doesn't feel right linda kind of

604: had a visceral reaction the first time

606: she met him

607: no he was a

609: a bad person uh

611: and

613: you know

616: i had a reason that i thought those

617: meetings would lead to something good

619: but uh i shouldn't have done them and

621: finally on this topic you recently gave

623: an interview you said you'd marry

624: melinda all over again um she says you

627: guys are friendly um

629: not necessarily friends but friendly how

631: do you see the relationship moving

633: forward well one of the things

635: we built together is the gates

638: foundation and we love that work

640: uh you know we've got all the resources

643: i was lucky enough to get we've got

645: warren buffett uh committed uh massive

648: resources and so making sure that is

650: spent well saves lives melinda and i

653: love doing that work together so i feel

654: very lucky that i i still have that with

657: her as well as you know we've got these

659: three incredible kids i know and i heard

662: they're all moving out of the house so

663: you're you're an empty nester for sure

665: now i've got a big empty nest

668: all right bill thank you so much thanks

670: for being with us and again the book is

671: called how to prevent the next pandemic

673: chock full of ideas it's out today

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