Bill Gates released mosquitoes into a crowd at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference to prove a point on fighting malaria. Read about it below, see a photo and a video about his work on global health.

Bill Gates Releasing Mosquitoes

Bill Gates has retired from Microsoft and has turned his attention and considerable business skills to his foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The focus of his foundation is improving global health.

The Microsoft founder took the stage to speak to the Hollywood stars, technological bigwigs and politicians gathered for the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference and released a jar full of mosquitoes into the audience.

“Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,” Gates said while opening a jar onstage at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference — a gathering known to attract technology kings, politicians, and Hollywood stars.

“I brought some. Here I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.”

Wouldn’t you have loved to be a fly on the walls of that room … so to speak. Interestingly, this was first report by Facebook Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin who was in the room. He reported it on Twitter as he was sitting there, “Bill Gates just released mosquitos into the audience at TED.”

Gates waited a couple of minutes to reassure the crowd that the mosquitoes didn’t carry malaria.

Fighting malaria world wide is a focus of his foundation. In fact, Gates has donated $168.7 million himself to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to help develop a vaccine for malaria.

Below is a video about Gate’s foundation.