Serial entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who co-invented the optical computer mouse in 1980, has developed a real hatred for mask-wearing. It isn’t just that he doesn’t want to wear one. He doesn’t want anyone else to, either. When he flies, he offers other passengers money to take theirs off.
And he has a lot of money. He founded an internet search company in the 90s that he sold to Disney, and built several other companies including a anti-spam provider. So he thinks nothing of starting out with an offer of $100, and going up from there.
Naturally a passenger who wants to wear a mask now that it’s no longer required values that choice highly, so he doesn’t seem to get a lot of takers at just $100. Instead of letting it go, he ups the offer. He says he’s gone up to $10,000… and then even $100,000.
I asked the people sitting next to me on the plane if I paid them $10,000 would they remove their mask for the duration of the flight? Both declined the offer.
Maybe I should offer $100,000 next time? This can quantify the amount of brainwashing. pic.twitter.com/VLlymusmcq
— Steve Kirsch (@stkirsch) March 7, 2023
And I started the bidding at $100.
— Steve Kirsch (@stkirsch) March 10, 2023
Maybe he’s full of it, and the $100,000 offer isn’t real. Maybe nobody believes the offer is real. But he complains on social media, thinking it’s absurd that he’d be turned down. To me it’s absurd that he would care if someone wore a mask.
A mask is something you wear voluntarily at this point, and I genuinely don’t know why it offends other people. They’re not being forced to wear one!
At this point a mask should be a choice. We have vaccines and treatments that reduce the risk of Covid-19, plus at a societal level there’s so much background immunity that the virus is not threatening to overwhelm the health care system.
- It makes sense for an individual to choose to wear a well-fitting, high quality mask. That may be the case as protection against things even other than Covid-19.
- It makes little sense from a medical standpoint to wear a cloth mask, but even so as a wardrobe accessory that’s their own business.
Would someone who dislikes masks – and isn’t required to wear one themselves – offer another passenger money to take something else off?
The irony of course is that if you’re paying people to take off their mask, they have to first be wearing a mask in order to be eligible. That means the offers may do more to encourage mask-wearing (for the chance at a payout) than to reduce it.
During the pandemic Kirsch started funding tests of already-approved drugs to see what might work against Covid-19. And some of the work was excellent, such as research on fluvoxamine. But he went off the deep end, refusing to accept the results of the scientific research he had funded, for instance promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.
Then he turned his focus to vaccines, claiming they “kill twice as many people as they save.” He founded anti-vaccine group Vaccine Safety Research Foundation.
(HT: Paul H.)
A-hole says what?
Talking about Kirsch.
Has money but no brains to speak of. Got lucky stealing other peoples ideas.
Wow….
Kirsch came up with the idea for the optical mouse using infrared (a guy at Xerox did the same in 1980 with visible light). Douglas Engelbart invented the first computer mouse in 1963. 😮
The mouse was inventor in the 1970s at Xerox PARC by an engineer working there. PARC also invented the GUI that was later used by Macintosh computers
What is the 2010 definition of “vaccine” vs the 2023 definition? Tell us what you find.
@Arthur Schwartz – he generally appears to be credited with independently co-inventing the optical mouse
@Jc – such a canard
Dear Mr Kirsch
Perhaps you would change your mind if you had to go to hospital – wear double ppe – and switch off the life support machine of a loved one who succumbed to Covid complications – who within 45 minutes of flicking that switch – passed away. It was horrific and engrained in my mind forever
And yes – at the time he had received his first jab.
So – if you would like to send me $100,000 (convert to GPB£) so we can give his loved ones a better life without a breadwinners salary – please do contact me !
HCQ works wonders for COVID. Why are Gary and Lucky so ignorant (and arrogant)??
@@Gary–the definition was changed multiple times as @@Jc stated. Why do you refuse to report accurate info?????
Just another reminder of how disconnected from reality that some people can find themselves. Fact has no basis in reality whatsoever anymore for a subset of people who are arrogant enough to believe that if they disagree with it, it must be false. But, then there are million of people who watch and believe political pundits who, when under penalty of purgery, admitted that they lied on camera and didn’t believe a single thing they were telling the American people. Yet I am supposed to believe what the say about the pandemic and COVID.
@JC:
> What is the 2010 definition of “vaccine” vs the 2023 definition? Tell us what you find.
What’s changed? We now have the technology to make them in ways we didn’t before, but the concept remains the same–they are either inert copies of some or all of the pathogen, or in a few cases low-threat versions of the disease. Fundamentally, the old wanted posters at the post office–recognize the bad guy before he attacks.
In the old days the only way they could make these is to take the real virus, chop it up and inject it; or for the live versions use something that nature already provided. (The smallpox and polio vaccines were naturally occurring.) In recent times they have gone to things like taking a more distinctive part of the virus and programming bacteria to make it and now we have versions that have our own body do the making. Focusing on the distinctive aspects makes it more effective. The old wanted posters with irrelevant bits removed.
I love this post Gary. Goes to show you that mask wearing now is nothing more than a Signal for political and tribal affiliation. Nobody is going to take money to change their dogmatic beliefs either
@Ugh:
> HCQ works wonders for COVID. Why are Gary and Lucky so ignorant (and arrogant)??
Wonderfully ineffective, that is. Busted over and over, only dishonest research showed any benefit.
(Although there probably has been some benefit to those with undiagnosed parasite infections.)
@David M Stone:
> I love this post Gary. Goes to show you that mask wearing now is nothing more than a Signal for political and tribal affiliation.
So you would accept money to risk your life? Because that’s what he’s asking for.
@ Gary — Delta will be happy to take more of his money.
Masks do work as evidenced by the doctors and nurses in the ICU did not get Covid when working with Covid patients but the patient’s family members did get sick. The key might be a good mask that is fitted properly and not with your nose sticking out.
I would refuse $100. If I get Covid, I would think that $100 is way too little. $2M, I would chance it. $1000, no. $500,000 probably. I think it would be somewhere between $80,000 and $500,000 with a guaranteed payment. Is he carrying that much cash? A mere promise is not enough.
The guy should just fly private and maskless. Either that or buy up the cabin around him and give away free seats.
@derek, that’s what I was thinking. How does a guy who’s as rich and stably genius as this guy not just fly private? I guess he’s gotta prove his super smarts to the littles
And geez, the means of making vaccines has evolved to manipulating the basic framework of existing drugs into other drugs for other uses…then during clinical trials, finding it worked better as a cure for something entirely different than the originally intended outcome. Big Pharma didn’t become Big Pharma overnight, and this evolution has been going on for 3 decades now…not 12-13 years…
I wish government or individual businesses outlawed wearing a mask. The time to wear one has passed and anyone that still does just looks stupid.
@ Retired Gambler — The time has not passed for those who feel the need to wear a mask. You do you, and let them do what they need to do.
@Gene – sure Gene they can continue to look stupid and paranoid. Frankly no one I know even thinks about COVID anymore. If people are still hung up on it just stay home. I make a point to cough every time I walk past someone wearing a mask (which thankfully is very few people now)
@Retired Gambler – Most people with very limited IQs try not to show it in public. Here you are displaying it for all the world to see.
Doesn’t this Kirsch ‘covidiot’ realize that he does not have to offer anyone $100K to take their mask off because for that kind of money he could book all or nearly first- or business-class seats and have the cabin to himself?
Like I said, a ‘covidiot’, not unlike many who’ve commented in this space on masks the last couple to three years…
Don’t you just love it when people scream that they have a constitutional right to do or not to do something, and at the same time swear at you or cough on you when you do the opposite? I guess only they have that right and you must follow their lead.
There are lots of Americans who want to take choices away from other Americans, and who believe in use of their economic power to control others. E.g., Steve Kirsch
“To me it’s absurd that he would care if someone wore a mask.”
You should ask the mayor of New York about that. Apparently he cares, too.
Where do these stupid comments about politics and virtual signaling come from? Gosh some people just want to make everything about their politics. Why the hell anyone cares if someone else wears a mask is so confusing to me. Not to mention, how the heck do you know if the person is on chemo or immune compromised and needs protection? Mind your own damn business. Aren’t conservatives supposed to want everyone left alone? I only wear masks on planes these days and I wear a proper N95 when I do it. Anecdotally, everyone I know that gets Covid these days gets it when traveling. All that said, please advise where Mr. Kirsch lives, I want to follow him around in a full on WWI gas mask as my full time job.
@reiredgambler I hope you get caught doing that to the wrong person and get pummeled in the face. Again, how the heck do you know why someone is wearing a mask? Leave people alone you idiot.
Damn some of you must be loaded. For $100k not only would I take that mask off I’d even lick the seat back.
@JG – I’m a former boxer who is still in pretty good shape. I seriously doubt most people would want to try and pummel me in the face. Trust me it wouldn’t end well for them.
@Retired Gambler:
> I wish government or individual businesses outlawed wearing a mask. The time to wear one has passed and anyone that still does just looks stupid.
Immunosuppressed and immunocompromised people have been wearing masks since long before Covid. And this has taught me that there are stores where I will always be wearing a respirator. Perfume/scented candle areas are no longer miserable for me.
Now what really looks stupid is chin diapers.
Gary,
Vaccines don’t reduce the risk. Covid vaccines actually do nothing for people who get them except make them more likely to have myocarditis or other adverse reactions.
Wearing a mask shouldn’t be a choice now. It should have always been a choice and every cop or flight attendant who persecuted people for not wearing one previously are the criminals.
Is he an anti vaxxer or just does not trust the Covid vaccines using mRNA or that were pushed through by partisan forces and big pharma?
@ John Arton — Wow, you are misinformed. COVID vaccines saved thousands of lives, even if you are too hard-headed to accept that fact. You might want to turn off FoxNews. Just in case you missed the real news the last 1-2 weeks, FoxNews and its anchors are now admitted liars under oath in court.
@retiredgambler I am sure you’re tough being an in-shape former boxer. Especially if you get a chance to beat up a terrified immunocompromised and/or cancer patient!
Cahn’t make this stuff up!
According to ‘covidiotic’ comments like the one below, we are to believe that vaccines are ineffective and that the COVID virus simply decided to close shop and stop infecting people around the world !
Every single one of those claims is either the diametric opposite of what hard science has established, or simply unhinged Faux News or MAGA conspiracy theories…
97% of people who died from covid were unvaccinated. Those who had covid and were gasping their last breaths said that they were sorry that they doubted the vaccines worked and implored others to get vaccinated. Do you think they knew something that you don’t? Innocent people who didn’t have covid died because there was no room in hospitals for them. I call people who were unvaccinated and died from covid, excellent examples of Darwin’s survival of the fittest.
Well, just three things:
1. Kirsch is incredibly rude and arrogant, and filled with hubris to verbally harass a fellow passenger.
2. Isn’t it possible to complain of (aforeentioned) harassment to an FA and have it stop?
3. When (or never?) does it become clear to some (like Kirsch) that MONEY is not point, but rather integrity and self-determination…the freedom to choose!!!
@Arturo S. Right on. I do not know what is the baseline for the determination that “97% of people who died from covid were unvaccinated” (seems high to me), considering that most COVID-associated deaths occurred before vaccines were developed and widely administered, but ‘covidiots’ would have us believe that it is by coincidence that the rates of infection, deaths and incidences of severe COVID cases plummeted almost as soon as vaccines were developed and widely administered, leading shortly thereafter to the easing of most mitigatory measures that had so riled up red America…
Would someone make it clear whether this fellow carries the cash to make good on this? Because if he doesn’t, who would trust him to send a check? I would be more likely to ask for the money in advance and keep my mask on if I needed to. Cuz I. Have no respect for bullies like him.
Several studies have shown that masks offer no protection against covid, most recently the authoritative Cochrane study whose director said even N95 masks “do no good – full stop.” Kirsch was doing a simple sociology experiment to see, in his words, how much “brainwashing” mask-wearers suffer from these days. Judging from the clueless comments on this subject, the level of mask-brainwashing is off-the-charts high. I’m guessing these same people think that multiple vaxxes and boosters also protect them from covid – even tho recent studies show the opposite, that’s right, that multiple-boosted persons are MORE LIKELY to get covid than unvaxxed persons. I’m sure the brainwashed cohort will never believe that.
@John Arton:
> Vaccines don’t reduce the risk. Covid vaccines actually do nothing for people who get them except make them more likely to have myocarditis or other adverse reactions.
Then why do we see the death rate for Republicans twice the rate for Democrats once the vaccines came out?
> Wearing a mask shouldn’t be a choice now. It should have always been a choice and every cop or flight attendant who persecuted people for not wearing one previously are the criminals.
Criminals for enforcing the law?!
> Is he an anti vaxxer or just does not trust the Covid vaccines using mRNA or that were pushed through by partisan forces and big pharma?
If it’s partisan forces how did they act in most of the world?
And the reason it happened so fast wasn’t pushing through, but rather the mRNA vaccines aren’t actually new. Years of research went into them–but at the time they were about SARS. The research reached the point where phase 1 human trials would have been conducted and stopped there–with no SARS in the wild anymore human trials could not pass ethics review.
Covid (aka SARS-CoV-2) came along, they took it back off the shelf, pasted in the modified spike protein and began testing.
@Loren — Wonderful stuff.
Discount Frank Burns CLAIMS to have made this offer, but his storey reeks of purest griftosphere BS. If I was on the receiving end of this offer, I’d have video of him and have $100K in my VenMo account, plus appearances on news shows cackling about it.
This idiot should stick to flying private, mask less and infect everyone around him. Leave the paying flying public alone! Covid is very much alive and it’s still out there.
I hope the idea catches on and covidiots globally copy this twat’s lead. That way any wealth held by anti-maskers will flow to masked folk in a neat transfers of assets from society’s dumbest to society’s smartest…..;)
@Arthur Schwartz @Gary Leff
Steve Kirsch did invent the optical infrared mouse, which was adopted by Sun Microsystems. Along with Charles Corfield, he also founded Frame Technology, which for years produced the premier desktop publishing software (which was eventually taken over by Adobe).
No offense, but his IQ is probably higher than both of yours combined.
Mask wearing is pointless for most of these people but it makes sense to wear N94 if you are vulnerable.
Personally I don’t wear masks anymore but I would don one immediately if this a-hole was on my plane. Some people need to learn that they can’t buy everything.
That said I did take $500 from a tech bro who wanted my seat at a blackjack table. After finishing my hand of course. Easy money and the odds are the same at the next table.
The mask is mostly a symbol at this point. Wait, the mask is entirely a symbol since we already do know it does nothing – zilch – for protecting against flu and colds and that lab thing.
It’s literally the same as wearing a shopping basket on your mouth. Now I know, I know, Ben likes one, you like one when you’re briefly pausing between boosters, but it’s placebo.
If this offends you, you’re the one wearing it as a symbol. Think about that for a bit. And then take it off, lose weight and get some sunlight.
I didn’t say that Xerox PARC invented the OPTICAL mouse. I said they invented the mouse. That mouse used a roller ball to move the cursor. They also invented the GUI that Apple took and used on their MACs. No offense but reading comprehension is not your strong point.
Then how do you explain that almost everyone who died were unvaccinated? Most people who were vaccinated did not die.Vaccines work. When I was a child, polio was rampant. I had 2 friends that had it. After the vaccine came out, it went away. The only places where polio is still found are countries that refuse to let their population get them. Whatever happen to smallpox, the deadliest disease ever? Evryone I know got vaccinated. None of them died. The vaccine worked.
So if you had an operation, you would be totally OK if the surgeon and nurses didn’t wear a mask? Oh and masks can stop viruses because they often ride on liquid drops of various types and they are stopped.