Bill Gates’ Former Doctor Says Billionaire ‘Refused To Vaccinate His Children’
A hoax website published an unfounded story claiming that a former doctor for Bill Gates said the philanthropist refused to vaccinate his own children. Gates and his wife, Melinda, have invested billions of dollars to research, develop and deliver vaccines around the world to help reduce child mortality. "Bill Gates’ former doctor says billionaire ‘refused to vaccinate his children,’" said the headline on a Feb. 7 post on yournewswire.com. Yournewswire.com’s story does not identify the purported doctor and says the information was divulged privately at a "medical symposium in Seattle," without naming the symposium or a date. The story claimed "the comments caused a stir among physicians at the symposium with claims he was breaking doctor-patient confidentiality, according to reports. However as he was speaking to other physicians, he was not breaking the industry code of conduct." Facebook users flagged the post as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social media network’s efforts to combat online hoaxes. (Check out all yournewswire.com’s posts debunked by PunditFact.) Yournewswire.com’s post includes information from a December 2015 CNN report about unvaccinated children in California. But it offers no evidence to support the claim about Gates’ children and their vaccination records. In their 2018 annual letter, the Gateses said they’ve "spent $15.3 billion on vaccines over the past 18 years. And it’s been a terrific investment." (The Gates children are 15, 18 and 22 years old.) Melinda Gates in a Feb. 22 Instagram post wrote: "When my first child, Jenn, was born, over 800,000 children were dying each year of rotavirus — a preventable, curable disease. It broke my heart to imagine watching your child get sick and knowing that medicine could save her — if only you had access to it. That was a clarifying moment for me. No child should die a preventable death. Bill and I have dedicated our lives to reducing the number who do." Without evidence, Yournewswire claimed that a former doctor for Bill Gates said the philanthropist refused to vaccinate his own children. We rate the post Pants on Fire! See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com
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