Millionaire and Silicon Valley ‘Creep’ Steve Kirsch Offers Woman in First Class on Delta Flight $100,000 to Remove Face Mask

Just because someone is a tech innovator doesn’t mean he isn’t also a creep or worse.
Steve Kirsch, an American entrepreneur, is one of two people who independently invented the optical mouse in 1980 and created the search engine Infoseek, which was launched in 1994.  More recently he has been a promoter of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines as well as a philanthropic supporter of medical research.
In 2020, the first full year of the pandemic, Kirsch created a research fund for potential treatments for SARS-CoV-2, pouring $1 million into the Covid-19 Early Treatment Fund, according to a report by the MIT Technology Review.
Then things went south. As the article’s headline put it, “[T]his tech millionaire went from Covid trial funder to misinformation superspreader.”
Now we can add the word “creep” to his CV.
Last week, on a Delta Air Lines flight, Kirsch offered a nearby female passenger $100,000 to remove her face mask for the duration of the flight.
“I am on board a Delta flight right now,” he said in a post on social media.  “The person sitting next to me in first-class refused $100,000 to remove her mask for the entire flight. No joke. This was after I explained they don’t work. She works for a pharma company.”
Apparently she did not buy into his explanation of how masks don’t work the same way people voiced skepticism about an article that recently appeared in the Cochrane Review that led many to conclude that masks don’t work to prevent SARS-CoV-2.  In early March, the publication’s editor apologized for the article, calling the conclusion that masks don’t work “inaccurate.”
Kirsch continued to harass the passenger, who remained anonymous, throughout the flight.
“I started the bidding at $100,” Kirsch said on Twitter. “And I pointed out that when she removed the mask for eating and drinking, she could be infected with one breath. So she had full disclosure.”
“She took off her mask as soon as the breakfast was served!!!! Because everyone knows you can’t get infected while you are eating!! ,” he sarcastically added, before concluding his rant: “Maybe next time I’ll sit next to someone who had an account at Silicon Valley Bank.”
Numerous people on Twitter called Kirsch a “creep” and a “noxious arrogant fool.”
“Harassed a woman minding her own business in a confined space where she couldn’t get away from you… Lovely,” another poster wrote.
Jonathan Spira contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)