Bill Gates has advocated for pandemic preparedness for years and famously gave a TED talk in 2015 that warned of the potentially staggering death toll a worldwide pandemic could create.

多年来，比尔·盖茨一直主张准备好应对传染病大流行，他在2015年的一次著名的TED演讲中警告称，一场全球性的流行病可能会造成惊人的死亡数。

As the coronavirus pandemic has spread around the world, Gates has pledged $250 million to fight the disease and create a vaccine.

随着冠状病毒在全球范围内蔓延，盖茨已经承诺投入2.5亿美元来对抗这种疾病并研制疫苗。

Incredibly, it''s these two factors that provide the foundation of a new set of conspiracy theories that point to Gates as the origin of coronavirus — and those conspiracy theories have rapidly gone from fringe online conspiracy theorists to the mouths of conservative pundits.

令人难以置信的是正是这两个事实为新的阴谋论提供了基础，它们认为盖茨是冠状病毒的起源——而这些阴谋论已经迅速从边缘的网络阴谋论者发展到保守派权威人士的众口铄金。

Here''s what we know:

这些是我们知道的：

In 2015, Bill Gates gave a TED talk titled, "The next outbreak? We''re not ready."

2015年，比尔·盖茨在TED进行了题为“下一次疫情？我们没有准备好”的演讲。

In his 2015 TED talk, Gates examined the ebola outbreak that killed thousands of people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. He highlighted the factors that kept the disease from spreading worldwide, and warned against the potential for a much more contagious, worldwide pandemic.

在2015年的TED演讲中，盖茨回顾了导致几内亚、利比里亚和塞拉利昂数千人死亡的埃博拉疫情。他强调了阻止这种疾病在世界范围内传播的因素，并对一场潜在的、更具传染性的世界性大流行病进行了警告。

"The failure to prepare could allow the next epidemic to be dramatically more devastating than ebola," he said. "You can have a virus where people feel well enough while they''re infectious that they get on a plane, or they go to a market."

他说:“无法做好准备会使下一次传染病的破坏性比埃博拉严重得多。可能会有这样一种病毒，当人们感觉依然很好时已有传染性，所以他们会乘坐飞机或者去市场。”



The conspiracy theories connecting Gates to coronavirus started in late January, according to a recent New York Times investigation, with a "YouTube personality lixed to QAnon" who claimed Gates had prior knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic.

根据《纽约时报》最近的调查，将盖茨与冠状病毒联系在一起的阴谋论开始于1月下旬，一位“与QAnon有关联的YouTube名人”声称盖茨事先知道冠状病毒大流行。

Days later, the website Infowars — the site run by Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who claims the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax — published a piece that incorrectly stated the Gates Foundation "co-hosted a pandemic exercise in late 2019 that simulated a global coronavirus outbreak."

几天后，阴谋论者阿莱克斯·琼斯运营的网站发表了一篇文章，错误地声称盖茨基金会“在2019年底共同举办了一场模拟全球冠状病毒爆发后的大流行演习”。


According to a FactCheck.org followup, "There was in fact an exercise (called ''Event 201'') that took place in October that was hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security — which the Gates Foundation participated in — that focused on emergency preparedness in the event of a ''very severe pandemic.'' But it didn''t deal with 2019-nCoV [novel coronavirus], and it didn''t make real-life predictions about death tolls."

据FactCheck.org追踪，“这实际上是一次演习练习（称为“201事件”），是由约翰霍普金斯大学卫生安全中心在10月进行——盖茨基金会曾经参与——关注对一次‘非常严重的大流行’做紧急准备。但它没有涉及新型冠状病毒，也没有对实际死亡人数进行预测。”

That distinction, however, was ignored by conspiracy theorists.

然而这一区别被阴谋论者忽视了。

For the next two months, conspiracies that Gates knew of the virus beforehand or was directly responsible for its creation exploded. And now it''s reached at least one Fox News host.

在接下来的两个月里，盖茨事先知道或对制造该病毒负直接责任的阴谋爆发了。现在至少被一名福克斯新闻主持人接受。

Mentions of coronavirus-related Bill Gates conspiracy theories have exploded on social media and TV: They were mentioned 1.2 million times in the last two months, according to data provided to the New York Times by the media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

媒体情报公司Zignal Labs向《纽约时报》提供的数据显示，这个阴谋论在社交媒体和电视上爆发：在过去两个月里，被提到了120万次。

Those conspiracy theories have spread from fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists, like Alex Jones, to conservative pundits like Fox News host Laura Ingraham. "Digitally tracking Americans'' every move has been a dream of the globalists for years," Ingraham tweeted in early April. "This health crisis is the perfect vehicle for them to push this."

“全球主义者多年来一直梦想对美国人的一举一动进行数字化追踪”，保守派权威人士、福克斯新闻主持人劳拉·英格拉汉姆4月初在推特上写道，“这场健康危机是他们推动此事的完美工具。”


According to the piece, "The inevitable mass vaccination campaign to eradicate COVID-19 would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a worldwide digital ID. This system would store a wealth of information about each individual (including vaccination history) and would be used to grant access to rights and services."

文章称，“为根除COVID-19而不可避免的进行大规模的疫苗接种将是引入全球数字身份证的绝佳机会。该系统将存储每个人的大量信息（包括疫苗接种史），并将被用于授权获得权利和服务。”


Ingraham''s followers understood the message: "I will not take a #BillGatesVaccine," one responded.

英格拉汉姆的追随者理解这条信息，有人回复：“我不会接种比尔盖茨的疫苗。”

Former Trump staffer Roger Stone, who was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison earlier this year, was more direct than Ingraham. "Whether Bill Gates played some role in the creation and spread of this virus is open for vigorous debate," Stone said in a radio interview, according to a New York Post report. "I have conservative friends who say it''s ridiculous and others say absolutely."

今年早些时候，特朗普的前幕僚罗杰·斯通被判在联邦监狱服刑40个月，他比英格拉汉姆更加直接。据《纽约邮报》报道，斯通在接受电台采访时表示：“比尔·盖茨是否在这种病毒的创造和传播中扮演了某种角色进行激烈讨论是开放的。我有一些保守派朋友，他们认为这很荒谬，其他人则认为绝对是荒谬的。”

Why Bill Gates? Why now? Even pandemics are partisan.

为什么会是比尔盖茨？为什么是现在？即使是流行病也有党派之分。

Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the billions that Gates earned from co-founding Microsoft and turning it into an international powerhouse is being used to fight contagious disease around the world. They''ve spent millions on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and polio.

盖茨通过比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会将数十亿美元用来对抗世界各地的传染病。他们已经在艾滋病、疟疾和小儿麻痹症的预防和治疗上花费了数百万美元。


But Gates has also voiced opposition to President Trump''s federal coronavirus response.

但盖茨还发声反对总统特朗普的联邦冠状病毒应对措施。



Despite being especially vocal lately, Gates hasn''t said much in response to the conspiracies. "It''s ironic," he told GCTN in a televised interview.

尽管盖茨最近特别的直言不讳，但他并没有对这些阴谋回应太多。“这很讽刺，”他在接受GCTN的电视采访时表示。

Gates declined an interview with the New York Times for its report on coronavirus-related Bill Gates conspiracy theories — a rare no from a man who''s made numerous press appearances lately in an attempt to get out the message on coronavirus prevention.

比尔·盖茨拒绝了《纽约时报》对于相关阴谋论的采访，对于他来说这是罕见的，因为最近他多次在媒体上露面，试图传播有关预防冠状病毒的信息。

He did, however, answer a question about those conspiracy theories in a televised interview with Chinese broadcast channel GCTN.

然而他在接受中国广播频道GCTN的电视采访时，确实回答了一个有关这些阴谋论的问题。

"I''d say it''s ironic that you take someone who''s doing their best to get the world ready and putting, in my case, billions of dollars into these tools for infectious diseases, and really trying to solve broadly infectious diseases — including those that cause pandemics," Gates said. "But we''re in a crazy situation, so there''s going to be crazy rumors."

盖茨说：“我想说这很讽刺，一些人竭尽全力让世界做好准备、大量投资——对我来说是数十亿美元到这些应对传染病的工具上，并且真正尽力解决各种传染病，包括那些引起大流行的传染病。但我们处于疯狂的情况下，所以会有疯狂的谣言。”

"I''d say it''s ironic that you take someone who''s doing their best to get the world ready and putting, in my case, billions of dollars into these tools for infectious diseases, and really trying to solve broadly infectious diseases — including those that cause pandemics," Gates said. "But we''re in a crazy situation, so there''s going to be crazy rumors."

盖茨说：“我想说这很讽刺，一些人竭尽全力让世界做好准备、大量投资——对我来说是数十亿美元到这些应对传染病的工具上，并且真正尽力解决各种传染病，包括那些引起大流行的传染病。但我们处于疯狂的情况下，所以会有疯狂的谣言。”