Donald Trump is so confused about the difference between HIV and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that he has had to ask Bill Gates to explain the difference.
During MSNBC’s ‘All In with Chris Hayes’ show, aired Thursday, the Microsoft founder revealed recent conversations he has had with the president, before and after his election to power.
In the new footage, showing him speaking in front of an audience at a Gates Foundation event, Mr Gates said: ‘He wanted to know the difference between HIV and HPV’.
Mr Gates disclosed that President Trump twice asked him to clarify the difference between HIV and HPV
He was quizzed on the differences between the two conditions during a get-together at Trump Tower, when Mr Gates mentioned that science and innovation were great things
The president was considering a commission to look into the ill effects of vaccines, and was bewildered about HIV and HPV. So Bill Gates explained ‘that those were rarely confused with each other’
As the audience laughs, Mr Gates, with his arms crossed, smiled and continued: ‘So I was able to explain that those were rarely confused with each other.’
Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the name for a group of viruses that affect your skin and the moist membranes lining your body, while HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease.
Mr Gates disclosed that President Trump twice asked him to clarify the difference between HIV and HPV: ‘So I was able to explain that those were rarely confused with each other.’
He was quizzed on the differences between the two conditions during a get-together at Trump Tower, when Mr Gates mentioned that science and innovation were great things.
That conversation broadly covered energy, health and education, ‘big things you want to do that are big, an HIV vaccine that you could accelerate,’ said Mr Gates.
However, the president was considering a commission to look into the ill effects of vaccines, and was bewildered about HIV and HPV.
Mr Gates explained that when he saw him in March 2017 in the White House, ‘he asked me if vaccines weren’t a bad thing.
‘Because he was considering a commission to look into the ill effects of vaccines, and Robert Kennedy Jr. was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things, and I said “no, that’s a dead end, don’t do that”. Both times, he wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV.’
Mr Gates said last month that Mr Trump was ‘super interested’ in the idea of a universal flu vaccine.
Although the president had asked him to be a science adviser, he told him that he did not believe the role would be a good use of his time.
Expanding upon a meeting with Mr Trump, before he was elected, Mr Gates recalled that he ‘avoided’ him, but, ‘he knew my [show jumping] daughter Jennifer, because Trump has this horse show thing down in Florida and he went up and talked to Jen, and was being super-nice, and then, 20 minutes later, he flew in, in a helicopter, to the same place.
‘So clearly he had been driven away and he wanted to make a grand entrance in a helicopter. Anyway, so when I first talked to him, it was actually kind of scary how how much he knew about my daughter.
‘Melinda didn’t like that too well.’
His revelations, which Chris Hayes has also tweeted about, have left people less than impressed, with one man replying: ‘We all laugh, but I find nothing funny about the fact we have a president who has the intellect of an 8 year old, if that.’
Another wit responded: ‘Yes because it’s like not knowing the difference between a bottle of milk and a helicopter.’