Retired Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday released a swarm of mosquitoes at a California conference in a stunt to draw support for his anti-malaria cause.

 

 

The mosquitoes released by Gates from a jar during a talk Wednesday at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) 2009 in Long Beach stunned scientists, academics and business leaders attending the annual event.

“Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,” Gates yelled to the crowd before unleashing the insects, which were not carrying the disease, according to the Telegraph. “I brought some. Here I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.”

The mosquitoes, however, do not carry the malaria virus, according to Gates.

Gates said making people pay attention and care about the plight of Africans and South East Asians infected with the mosquito-borne malaria can lead to progress in preventing and eradicating the disease.

He lamented that more money is being spent on developing a cure for baldness and the audience is not driven to do the right thing.

Gates’s philanthropic foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is funding the development of a vaccine for malaria and encouraged others to invest in finding a cure. He also called for greater distribution of insect nets and other protective gear against the disease.i

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