The co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, revealed during a recent interview with staff of his foundation that President Donald Trump asked this peculiar question to him; what is the different between HIV and HPV? The footage of the entire interview was aired on Thursday by MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes, in which Bill Gates recalled the encounters with the POTUS.
The philanthropist met with Trump on two different occasions in December 2016 and March 2017 to discuss how they could drive progress in science and innovation.
“You know, pick things you want to do that are big, HIV vaccine — you could accelerate that," Gates told while recalling meeting with Trump. He told the POTUS, “Be associated with innovation.”
During those meetings, Donald Trump asked Bill Gates if vaccines weren’t bad because he was considering creating a commission to look into the negative effects of vaccines, if any.
Earlier in 2014, Trump promoted the false claim that some vaccines are linked to autism.
Gates said that he told the president ‘don’t do that’ and then shared the Trump asked him twice if HIV and HPV are the same thing.
"Both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV," Gates said. "So I was able to, uhh, explain that those are rarely confused with each other."
For the uninitiated, HIV is human immunodeficiency virus, which is a lifelong disease that attacks a person’s immune system. It is usually spread through unprotected sex with an infected person.
HPV or human papillomavirus on the other hand, is a common sexually transmitted diseases that can cause genital warts, and in more serious cases, cancer. HPV can be prevented with a vaccine. However, there are no vaccines for HIV.
