Described on social media as “creepy”, Steve Kirsch, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has been berating innocent people on flights in the US to remove their COVID face masks in exchange for money.
Last week, he tweeted about offering a fellow passenger $10,000 if they took their face mask off for the duration of the flight. When the person declined his offer, Kirsch suggested: “Maybe I should offer $100,000 next time? This can quantify the amount of brainwashing.”
Over the weekend, Kirsch was at it again — this time, harassing a female passenger on a Delta flight and offering her $100,000 to remove her mask.
When the passenger refused to engage with him, Kirsch continued to harass her, asking her if she’d change her mind if he increased the amount.
The founder of Infoseek tweeted about the incident, telling the passenger that if she removed her mask to eat and drink, “she could be infected with one breath”.
“She took off her mask as soon as the breakfast was served,” he tweeted.
“Because everyone knows you can’t get infected while you’re eating! Maybe next time I’ll sit next to someone who had an account at Silicon Valley Bank.”
Kirsch has made headlines in the last few years as an anti-vaccine advocate, calling COVID vaccines “toxic” and spreading misinformation about masks and vaccines.
During the early months of the pandemic, he spent a million dollars creating his own research firm, COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund (CETF) to search for alternative covid treatments — with donors including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Elon Musk.
Fellow tweeters came out in force to criticise Kirsch’s latest actions, calling it “showmanship”, “toxic behaviour” and “disgusting disinformation.”
Former Democrat state representative nominee Jess Piper weighed in, tweeting, “Ew. Do you make a habit of offering money to random women to remove coverings from their bodies mid-air?”
One influencer said Kirsch ”seems like the type of person who is offended by anyone who doesn’t agree with him and then antagonises them to to have a power trip to alleviate his own fears. It’s showmanship and toxic behaviour, then to tweet about it for attention.”
Infectious disease expert Alastair McAlpine wrote, “Stop bugging people who are minding their own business with your creepy nonsense,” while Canadian author Abby Simpson wrote, “Imagine pretending you have $100,000 cash-in-hand, and using that alleged money to try to embarrass a masked woman who also likely does not exist.”
In the US, federal law no longer requires people to wear masks in airports or on planes, though some states still mandate wearing masks in airports.
Delta Airlines passengers do not have a wear a mask during a flight unless “applicable governments” overrules this discretion.
According to Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library, a recent investigation into the effectiveness of mask-wearing did not, as many had falsely claimed, prove that wearing masks did nothing to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“It would be accurate to say that the review examined whether interventions to promote mask wearing help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses, and that the results were inconclusive,” Soares-Weiser said.
“Given the limitations in the primary evidence, the review is not able to address the question of whether mask-wearing itself reduces people’s risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses.”