posted on Feb, 1 2011 @ 09:04 AM
Some time ago, there was a burst of threads and posts about a TED talk Bill Gates gave, part of which related to his foundation's push for
vaccination in poorer nations. One remark in particular seemed to set some members off, as to them, it suggested that he wanted to use vaccines to
"sterilise" or some other insidious plot.
Now, the more level-headed members were quick to point out that even a basic understanding of the context would show that is incorrect, that he was
instead referring to health and education in general producing smaller families. The more conspiracy-minded members poo-poo'd this and assured
everyone else that Gates was some sort of reptilian monster that was using alien-derived vaccines to sterilize the world (or something like that).
On last night's "The Daily Show", this statement was put into even further context, as Mr. Gates very clearly states, while talking about the plan
to spread polio vaccines to Pakistan, India, and parts of Africa, that families that receive vaccinations (and thus don't have children die) tend to
produce smaller families, as they aren't afraid they will have to replace a child.
Here is the
link to the episode, Additionally, here is a
study from India about the inverse relationship between child vaccination status and
family size (if you can't access the full-text here, you should be able to at a public or university library).
Can we put this ridiculous "Bill Gates is sterilising" people myth to rest now?