Social Media
stated on February 4, 2025 in social media posts:

Bill Gates said, “Defunding USAID will bring about another mystery illness across the world.”

Facebook Fact-checks National Public Health Social Media

By Sofia Ahmed
February 12, 2025

Bill Gates didn’t say defunding USAID would cause a “mystery illness”

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Entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates said stopping the U.S. Agency for International Development’s funding could lead to "millions of deaths." He didn’t say USAID’s closure would cause the next pandemic.
Gates separately predicted there would be another pandemic.

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During a Feb. 4 appearance on ABC’s “The View” talk show, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates said he was “worried” about X owner Elon Musk’s efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. Some social media posts mischaracterized Gates’ comments.

A Feb. 4 Threads post quoted Gates saying, “Defunding USAID will bring about another mystery illness across the world. ” A caption on a Feb. 5 Instagram post attributed the same quote to Gates and shared a clip of Gates’ “The View” interview.

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During his interview, Gates neither mentioned a “mystery illness,” nor said closing USAID would cause the next pandemic. But he did say shuttering USAID could lead to “millions of deaths.”

When asked about Musk’s political influence, Gates responded:

“So, I’m a little worried particularly with this USAID stuff. My foundation partners with USAID on nutrition and getting vaccines out. There’s incredible people. They’re not actually worms that work there. Hopefully we’ll get some of that work back in shape. In fact, if we don’t, you could have literally millions of deaths.”

About two minutes after Gates discussed USAID, co-host Sunny Hostin separately asked Gates, “Before COVID, you say you spent the most sleepless nights worrying about pandemics. After COVID, has that changed, and if it has, what keeps you up now?”

Gates said, “The pandemic, sadly, was fairly predictable. And it won’t be the last pandemic. The next one could be far more severe.”

Although Gates didn’t say USAID’s closure would cause the next pandemic, he did say there would “certainly” be a pandemic in the next 25 years. Gates had shared that same estimate on CNBC’s “Make It,” a personal finance series, in September before Musk and President Donald Trump began dismantling USAID.

USAID will be merged with the State Department, three U.S. officials told CBS News. A federal judge on Feb. 7 temporarily stopped the Trump administration from placing 2,200 USAID employees on administrative leave.

We rate the claim that Gates said, “Defunding USAID will bring about another mystery illness across the world,” False.