According to foreign media reports such as "The Independent" and "New York Post" on the 16th, American billionaire and Silicon Valley technology tycoon Steve Kirsch (Steve Kirsch) recently set off a bloody storm of "wearing no mask" on social media.
Steve revealed that on a flight last Friday, he went all the way from $100 to $100,000, asking the lady next to him in the first class to take off her mask and indoctrinating her with her that "masks are useless," but was refused.
According to the report, Steve, an anti-mask, anti-vaccine activist, his actions to lead passengers were regarded by most netizens as a kind of "entanglement" and "harassment", and were fiercely criticized, "You should take care of yourself, not ruin the lady's journey." ”
According to the US media, Steve Kirsch is a senior American technology boss. In the 1980s, he was one of the inventors of the earliest version of the optical mouse.
Frame Technology Corp, which he co-founded, was acquired by Adobe in 1995, and Infoseek, the search engine he created, was acquired by Disney in 1999. In 2007, his net worth had reached $230 million.
At the same time, Steve is an anti-mask, anti-vaccine activist. The MIT Technology Review website reported that Steve has always been skeptical of the new crown vaccine and often publishes false misleading information about the epidemic online.
Photo from The New York Post
This time, he tried to use his "banknote ability" to sell his belief in the "uselessness of masks".
Steve wrote about the experience on his personal Twitter, saying that on a Delta-operated flight last Friday, he offered a neighbor woman in first class to pay $100 to take off her mask, and tried to convince the other party that "people must take off their masks when drinking water and eating, the respiratory system is also exposed to the air, and wearing masks has no protective effect", but was refused.
According to Steve, the woman was about 60 years old and worked for a pharmaceutical company. He then gradually increased the price to $100,000, but the female passenger remained unmoved.
The only thing that made her voluntarily take off her mask was the meal time on the plane.
Seeing that the lady was indifferent to $100,000, but quickly took off her mask after the flight attendant delivered breakfast and ate happily, Steve expressed his incomprehension with 5 exclamation points: "As soon as breakfast was served, she took off her mask!!!!! ”
He also ironically referred to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank: "Maybe next time I'll sit next to someone who has an account with a Silicon Valley bank." ”
This isn't the first time Steve has paid other passengers to take off their masks on a plane. Just a few days ago, he said he offered $10,000 to lead passengers to remove their masks during the flight, but they were refused, "Maybe next time I should pay $100,000?" ”
The matter was so controversial that Steve broke his silence a few days later, explaining in an interview with The New York Post that his "$100,000" was a hypothetic, mainly to challenge whether the female passenger believed enough that "masks are an effective way of protection" and that the other party's answer told him that "she believes that wearing masks is useful."
At present, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends that passengers over the age of 2 wear masks when flying. Since last April, both American Airlines and airports have lifted the mandatory mask requirement, but many passengers continue to choose to wear masks on their flights.
Although Steve's tweet attracted more than 32.2 million views on Twitter, the billionaire was then lashed out very fiercely, being labeled "perverted" and "arrogant" by many netizens, believing that his actions on the plane were harassment of other passengers, "which is a horrible act bordering on harassment." No passenger should put up with this. We should be able to wear masks quietly without being harassed. ”
"This brother, it is recommended that you take a private jet, so that you are hello to me and hello to everyone."
Some netizens in the medical-related industry pointed out that Steve's theory was untenable, and he ignored that infection is also related to viral load. Infectious disease doctor Alastair McAlpin wrote: "Stop bothering those who take care of themselves with your creepy nonsense." ”
Criticism and rebuke poured in, and Steve responded again in an interview with "Inside Edition" that his attitude at that time was not aggressive, but had a friendly conversation with both passengers, and he thought his remarks were taken out of context.
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