Steve Kirsch

Kirsch received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.{{cite web|title=Kirsch makes $2.5 million pledge|url=https://news.mit.edu/1998/kirsch-0318|access-date=January 20, 2022|website=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|date=March 18, 1998 |language=en}}

File:Inventors_of_the_optical_mouse.jpg, the other independent inventor of the optical mouse]]

In 1980, Kirsch and Richard F. Lyon independently invented the first versions of the optical mouse.{{cite book|last=Sherr|first=Sol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzQb4zaWWl4C&pg=PA221|title=Input Devices|date=December 2, 2012|publisher=Elsevier Science|isbn=978-0-323-15643-1|page=221}} Kirsch has started several companies. In 1993, he founded the search engine Infoseek, which in 1999 was sold to the Walt Disney Co.{{cite book |last1=Price |first1=Christopher |title=The Internet Entrepreneurs: Business Rules are Good : Break Them |date=2000 |publisher=FT Press |isbn=978-0-273-64921-2 |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GIrAuHx5IQYC&pg=PA115 |language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Bank|first=David|date=June 19, 2002|title=Major Philanthropists Lobby To Promote Their Pet Causes|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1024438092446142720|access-date=January 21, 2022|issn=0099-9660}} He co-founded Frame Technology Corp., bought by Adobe in 1995.{{cite web |last1=Pitta |first1=Julie |title=Frame painting pretty picture for itself |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I4YtTkpOk20C&pg=RA8-PP3 |publisher=Computerworld |access-date=January 20, 2022 |page=111 |language=en}} In 2002 he was CEO of Propel Software.

In 2005 he founded Abaca, which made a spam filter.{{cite web|title=Tolly Group Review of Abaca|url=http://www.abaca.com/downloads/Tolly_Abaca%20Email%20Protection%20Gateway.pdf|publisher=Tolly Group|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111225021333/http://www.abaca.com/downloads/Tolly_Abaca%20Email%20Protection%20Gateway.pdf|access-date=September 22, 2011|archive-date=December 25, 2011}}{{cite web|title=Spam Star|url=http://www.abaca.com/downloads/networkcomputing_aug09.pdf|publisher=Network Computing|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111225011913/http://www.abaca.com/downloads/networkcomputing_aug09.pdf|access-date=September 22, 2011|archive-date=December 25, 2011}}

In September 2011, he started OneID{{cite web|url=http://www.oneid.com |title=oneid.com |publisher=oneid.com |date=June 14, 2012 |access-date=June 18, 2012}} to create a user-centric Internet-scale digital identity system using public key cryptography to replace usernames and passwords with a digital identity compatible with the NSTIC{{cite web |url=https://www.nist.gov/nstic/ |title=National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace |publisher=Nist.gov |access-date=June 18, 2012 |archive-date=August 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815043145/http://www.nist.gov/nstic/ |url-status=dead }} goals.{{cite news|title=OneID Aims to Unite Devices to Fight Hackers|url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/oneid-aims-to-unite-devices-to-fight-hackers/|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 3, 2011|first=Quentin|last=Hardy|date=November 3, 2011}}

Sometime before March 2021, Kirsch started M10, which markets blockchains for banks, but the board asked him to step down in the summer of 2021 amid controversy generated by his statements on COVID treatments and vaccines.{{Cite web|last=Perry|first=Tekla S.|date=March 30, 2021|title=Optical Mouse Inventor Hunts for a Covid Cure—and May Have Found One|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/optical-mouse-inventor-hunts-for-a-covid-cureand-may-have-found-one|access-date=January 20, 2022|website=IEEE Spectrum|language=en}}

In April 2020, Kirsch founded the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund (CETF) to fund research into off-label treatments for COVID-19 among drugs already having FDA approval for other diseases, donating $1 million himself and also fundraising from others.{{cite web|last=Ferguson|first=Cat|date=October 5, 2021|title=This tech millionaire went from covid trial funder to misinformation superspreader|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/10/05/1036408/silicon-valley-millionaire-steve-kirsch-covid-vaccine-misinformation/|access-date=October 24, 2021|publisher=MIT Technology Review}}{{Cite web|last=Rakowski|first=Harry|date=January 3, 2022|title=Misinformation is rife, but don't reject all alternative COVID-19 treatments|url=https://thehub.ca/2022-01-03/harry-rakowski-misinformation-is-rife-but-dont-reject-all-alternative-covid-19-treatments/|access-date=January 20, 2022|website=Hub Canada Media|language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Jarry |first1=Jonathan |title=Steve Kirsch and the Seduction of Simplicity |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking/steve-kirsch-and-seduction-simplicity |publisher=McGill University |access-date=November 29, 2023 |language=en}} He recruited what MIT Technology Review called "a powerhouse board" of scientific advisors including Robert Siliciano and management by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. By October 2021 the fund had made grants totaling $4.5 million to various researchers.

The fund found a "promising candidate" for further study in fluvoxamine, according to MIT Technology Review. After funding a successful small trial which ended in November 2020, CETF provided further funding for a Phase 3 trial, which as of October 2021 was analyzing data. Kirsch, frustrated that CETF's scientific advisory board was not willing to promote use of the drug based on results of a small preliminary study, wrote a post on Medium titled The Fast, Easy, Safe, Simple, Low-Cost Solution to COVID That Works 100% of the Time That Nobody Wants to Talk About. Medium removed his access to the site, citing misinformation concerns. Kirsch also refused to accept the outcome of a CETF-funded study on hydroxychloroquine, which had found the drug ineffective; he eventually warred with CETF's scientific advisory board over CETF's treatment of both drugs to the extent that in May 2021 all 12 members resigned.

In May 2021, Kirsch posted an article online claiming that COVID-19 vaccines affect fertility, while also underplaying the vaccines' ability to prevent illness and death, both statements criticized by fact checkers as being inaccurate and misleading.{{cite web|url=https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-vaccines-dont-affect-ovaries-or-fertility-in-general-the-vaccines-are-highly-effective-at-preventing-illness-and-death/ |title=COVID-19 vaccines don't affect ovaries or fertility in general; the vaccines are highly effective at preventing illness and death |website=Health Feedback |date=June 24, 2021 |accessdate=August 10, 2021 |last=Teoh |first=Flora}} In September 2021, speaking at an FDA meeting and identifying himself as CETF's executive director, Kirsch claimed that the vaccines "kill twice as many as they save"; the FDA responded that Kirsch had misinterpreted data and that there was no evidence his statement was true.{{Cite news|date=September 23, 2021|title=Fact Check-COVID-19 vaccines do not kill more people than they save; FDA experts did not make this false claim|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-usa-idUSL1N2QP18K|access-date=January 20, 2022}} Reuters assessed the claim as false. In March 2023 Kirsch reported that he'd offered a woman sitting next to him on a first class Delta flight $100,000 to remove her mask for the entire flight. She refused.{{Cite news|date=March 16, 2023|title=Millionaire anti-vaxxer slammed for 'creepy' $100,000 offer to woman on flight|language=en|work=Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/anti-vaxxer-millionaire-delta-flight-face-mask-b2299640.html|access-date=May 24, 2024}}

In October 2021, Kirsch founded the anti-vaccine group Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (VSRF),{{cite news |last1=Merlan |first1=Anna |title=Mysterious Medical Organizations Are Calling for an End to COVID Vaccines |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7nqm7/mysterious-medical-organizations-are-calling-for-an-end-to-covid-vaccines |access-date=February 28, 2022 |agency=Vice News |publisher=Vice Media Group |date=February 22, 2022}} which created ads depicting deaths the group attributed to vaccines.{{Cite web|last=Levin|first=Bess|date=November 3, 2021|title=More Than Half a Dozen "Stop the Steal" Attendees Were Elected to Public Office Last Night|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/stop-the-steal-gop-attendees-elected|access-date=January 21, 2022|website=Vanity Fair|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Anti-vaccine groups are already pushing the narrative against kids getting Covid vaccines|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/vaccine-misinformation-poised-spike-covid-shots-kids-roll-rcna4360|access-date=January 21, 2022|website=NBC News|date=November 3, 2021 |language=en}} Foundation advisors include Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, and Stephanie Seneff. Before this, in June 2021, Kirsch had appeared with Malone on the Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying podcast, which according to MIT Technical Review "introduced Kirsch to followers of the 'intellectual dark web{{' "}} and allowed him to access a "large and receptive audience to his claims about a fluvoxamine conspiracy".

Kirsch and his wife, Michele, fund a charitable foundation, which by 2007 had given $75 million to different causes.{{cite magazine|last1=Ratliff|first1=Evan|date=August 1, 1999|title=People|url=https://www.wired.com/1999/08/people-6/|access-date=January 20, 2022|magazine=Wired}} Kirsch also was a noted contributor to Democratic Party related funds.{{cite news |last1=Eilperin |first1=Juliet |title=For Democrats, Dueling for Donors |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/05/12/for-democrats-dueling-for-donors/bdc14235-dc45-48ae-afd3-34e5d117602c/ |access-date=August 11, 2022 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 12, 2003}}{{cite news |last1=Freedman |first1=Dan |title=High-end political donors able to skirt campaign finance laws |url=https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/High-end-political-donors-able-to-skirt-campaign-2110169.php |access-date=August 11, 2022 |work=Houston Chronicle |date=October 20, 2002}} In 2007, his personal fortune was estimated at $230 million;{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/technology/03kirsch.html |title=Spam's End? Maybe, if Time Allows|date= December 3, 2007 |work=New York Times |first=John |last=Markoff}} that same year he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and funded research into experimental treatments for it, eventually refocusing the family foundation on medical research. As of 1998 the couple lived in Los Altos and had two children.

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website|https://www.skirsch.io/}}
• [https://www.politifact.com/personalities/steve-kirsch/ Steve Kirsch] at Politifact

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Category:Living people

Category:American computer businesspeople

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Category:MIT School of Engineering alumni

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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:COVID-19 misinformation

Category:American anti-vaccination activists