Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, upset some health officials when he asked six or seven years ago about the possibility of performing autopsies on babies to figure out why they were dying.
The anecdote appears in the Gates Foundation’s 2017 annual letter, released on Wednesday, and it points to just how data driven the billionaire philanthropist is in his approach to fighting disease and reducing inequality.
“Here was this black hole of health understanding, and they acted as if it would be impolite to find out more,” Bill wrote.