Anxious about a potential pandemic, one of the richest couples in the world decided years ago to stockpile food in their basement.
During an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Melinda Gates, the wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, revealed that the couple worried about how they would obtain water and food if a crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic were to develop.
“A number of years ago, we had talked about, you know, ‘What if there wasn’t clean water? What if there wasn’t enough food? Where might we go? What might we do as a family?'” Gates said. “So I think we should leave those preparations to ourselves. … We had prepared and had some food in the basement in case needed. … Now, we’re all in the same situation.”
“We had prepared for years”@MelindaGates told @EmmaBarnett how her family had prepared for a pandemic and what they think about wearing masks.
Listen live on @BBCSounds ? https://t.co/4SnxX44AQs pic.twitter.com/SE9MlxrW44
— BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) April 16, 2020
“What we mostly talk about now in our home every night is how lucky we are. We understand our privilege, and when we say our grace at night, what we’re thankful for around the table is that we aren’t struggling to put a meal on the table as so many families around the world are,” Gates added.
Bill Gates, whose philanthropic foundation is the second-largest donor to the World Health Organization behind the United States, pledged a contribution of another $150 million with his wife to the organization last week to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
He has long espoused his belief that modern societies are not prepared for a pandemic and recently wrote that there needs to be “at least eight potential vaccines for Covid-19” in an editorial for the Sunday Telegraph.
He has also become a target in some far-right circles. For instance, Roger Stone, a self-described “dirty trickster” affiliated with InfoWars who is now a convicted felon, accused Gates of pushing “mandatory vaccinations and microchipping people.”
Melinda Gates said the coronavirus pandemic presents a situation where “we’re all in this together” and also opened up about the need to wear masks for the foreseeable future.
“We’re seeing it certainly in China and South Korea: People are wearing masks in public,” Gates said. “If that’s the worst thing we have to do, I think that’s something that we just adopt as a community.”
