An “open letter” purportedly written by US billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates about the novel coronavirus pandemic has been shared in English and Chinese on Facebook, Twitter and various websites. The Chinese-language posts state the letter was translated from its original publication in British newspaper The Sun.
Translated to English, the Facebook post begins: “An open letter from Bill Gates was published by British newspaper The Sun today and has\xa0since attracted a lot of attention. The letter has been shared widely by netizens who\xa0praise\xa0Gates\\xa0wisdom. It has been\xa0translated swiftly into Chinese. Here is Gates\ letter.", The\xa014-part letter states the novel coronavirus pandemic has reminded humans about our equality, inter-connectedness and\xa0limited longevity, as well as the importance of health and family; and that the storm will pass but what remains is the fact that the Earth is ill., The author ended the letter by concluding that the pandemic is not a disaster, but a "great corrector"., The post also included\xa0a screenshot of a WeChat article\xa0titled\xa0“Bill Gates: Novel coronavirus is a ‘great corrector’”, which was published on an account called Mengyue Marriage School., Below is a partial screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:, The novel coronavirus has killed at least 72,000 people and infected more than 1.2 million others worldwide as of April 7, according to the World Health Organisation., The same letter has also circulated alongside a similar Chinese-language claim on Facebook here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here and here. English versions of the letter were also shared on Facebook here, here and here; and on various\xa0websites here and here., But the letter is fake., The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation clarified on its verified Weibo account here on March 24, 2020, that the letter was not\xa0written by Gates., “Recently an article\xa0credited to Bill Gates with the title ‘What we can learn from the novel coronavirus epidemic’ has circulated online after being translated from a report published on the website of British newspaper\xa0The Sun. It has been confirmed that the article presents false information and has been removed\xa0from The Sun\s website. Please stop sharing the article. Thank you!" The statement reads., Below is a screenshot of the Weibo post from Gates Foundation:, The Sun has reportedly apologised and removed the erroneous letter from its website. A spokesperson for The Sun told British newspaper The Independent\xa0that\xa0it\xa0“mistakenly published a spoof story”., The Sun has not replied\xa0to enquiries from AFP at the time of publication., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Gates Foundation urges netizens to stop sharing fake 'Bill Gates coronavirus letter' | AFP Fact Check