Bill Gates revealed he has had some strange chats in his two meetings with President Donald Trump, saying that both times they met Trump asked him about the difference between HIV and HPV, according to video from a Gates Foundation event aired by MSNBC on Thursday.
The Microsoft co-founder was telling the crowd about a meeting at Trump Tower during the presidential transition and another other at the White House in 2017, The Hill reported.
"Both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between HPV and HIV," Gates said, according to the footage shown on MSNBC's "All in with Chris Hayes." "So I was able to explain that those were rarely confused with each other."
HIV is a virus spread through body fluids, often from sexual contact, that attacks the body's immune systems, often leading to AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while HPV, or human papillomavirus, is a group of more than 150 related viruses, which can cause cervical, vaginal, and vulvar HPV cancers. Vaccines can prevent infection with the types of HPV that most commonly cause cancer.
Gates said at both meetings Trump asked about the negative effects of vaccines, The Hill reported.
"In both of those two meetings, he asked me if vaccines weren't a bad thing, because he was considering a commission to look into the ill effects of vaccines," Gates said. "And I said, 'No, that's a dead end. That would be a bad thing, don't do that.'"
Gates has been involved in the fight against HIV for a long time, with the Gates Foundation concentrating its efforts in sub-Sahara Africa while committing more than $3 billion in HIV grants to organizations around the world.
During the presidential transition, Trump met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and known skeptic of childhood vaccinations, National Public Radio reported, and Kennedy said at the time that he would be heading up a commission on vaccine safety and "scientific integrity."
According to the video, Gates also said Trump had commented on his daughter's appearance, and he described that as "scary."
"He knew my daughter Jennifer because Trump has this horse show thing down in Florida. In fact he went up and talked to Jen and Jen was being super nice," Gates told the audience. ". . . When I first talked to him, it was actually kind of scary how much he knew about my daughter's appearance. Melinda [Gate's wife] didn't like that too well."