“A successful entrepreneur and philanthropist, Kirsch has started a number of high-tech companies, including one of the first Internet search engines, Infoseek, and he is also one of two people who independently invented the optical mouse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he founded the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund and raised millions of dollars to fund outpatient clinical trials for repurposed drugs.”
“As Kirsch has gone deeper into the anti-vaccine scene, many professional associates have increasingly distanced themselves from him. In May, all 12 members of CETF’s scientific advisory board resigned, citing his alarming dangerous claims and erratic behavior. Over the summer, the conflict reached his most recent startup, M10. Its board told him that if he wanted to remain part of the company he would have to stop making public anti-vaccine statements. In September, he resigned as CEO and gave up his board seat”
Steve Kirsch, who founded Infoseek and has become one of Silicon Valley’s most aggressive philanthropists, said he was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to help pro-Gore forces battling over thousands of absentee votes in two Florida counties.
“I think you can very easily show statistically that Gore won the election, and it is just not right that the actual count does not reflect that,” Kirsch told Reuters Wednesday.
“Even under the most extreme assumptions, the people of Florida voted for Gore.”
https://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/06/election.gore.philanthropist.reut/index.html
Steve Kirsch has said he lost most of his friends but gained millions more.