Bill Gates shared an anecdote about the sitting president of the United States that doesn't paint him in a positive light. In the story, Gates says that Donald Trump asked him if HPV and HIV were the same things, two different times.
Gates had to explain the difference between the two to Trump.
Gates Explains HPV And HIV To Trump
At a recent meeting of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates told a story in which he claims that Donald Trump asked him if there is a difference between HPV and HIV. Bill Gates took questions from staff at the meeting. Footage from the event doesn't seem to be from an official source due to the low quality of the footage.
Gates describes meeting Trump in December 2016 in New York and March 2017 at the White House. The two discussed vaccines. Trump asked Gates his opinion about starting a commission to look into the negative effects of vaccines. Gates told him that this wouldn't be a good idea. This is probably due to the large amount of scientific information that supports the safety of vaccines.
He said that both times he met with Trump, the president wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV. Gates said that he told Trump that the two aren't confused with each other.
Bill Gates also mentioned a time that he met Trump at a horse show in Florida. He says that Trump was at the event then left only to return to the horse show on a helicopter 20 minutes later. Gates said that it was obvious that Trump only arrived in the helicopter to make a grand entrance for the event.
HPV And HIV
HPV stands for human papillomavirus and HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus, even though they have similar acronyms the viruses cause different health problems. HPV affects a person's skin and moist membranes, it causes problems such as verrucas, genital warts, and abnormal cell changes in the cervix. HIV affects the immune system, it can lead to AIDS but with proper treatment, most people do not develop AIDS.
The White House hasn't released a statement about the confusion from Trump. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hasn't released a statement about Gates' story about Trump, either.
This isn't the first time that the president has been accused of lack of knowledge. While still campaigning to be president, Trump asked a foreign policy expert that if the US has nukes, why can't they use them?
