The millionaire tech mogul who made headlines all over the world by offering a plane passenger $100,000 to remove her mask told The Post he had “no regrets” about his controversial offer.
Silicon Valley veteran Steve Kirsch, 64, was dubbed a “crawler” after describing his encounter with a girl in Twitter thread last Friday.
“I’m on a Delta flight now,” he wrote in his first post, which has been viewed greater than 32 million times. “The person sitting next to me in firstclass refused $100,000 to remove his mask for the complete flight. No kidding. This was after I explained they didn’t work. He works for a pharmaceutical company.
Talking to The Post on Thursday, Kirsch — once a distinguished Democrat donorbut who now won’t give a dime to this party’s members,” he gave the context of his conversation with the mask-wearing passenger, saying it took place on a 4.5-hour flight from San Francisco to Detroit.
“It was a cordial conversation,” the wealthy businessman assured, adding that he “is rarely obnoxious and aggressive” when talking to masked people.
In response to Kirsch, the lady, who he said was in her sixties, was actually the one who struck up the conversation.
“I asked her why she was wearing a mask,” he explained. “She said she was going to see her daughter and desired to protect herself against COVID-19.”
![Steve Kirsch, a Silicon Valley businessman with an estimated net worth of $230 million in 2007, tweeted that he made the offer to an anonymous passenger last Friday.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008295435.jpg?w=1024)
The tech mogul claimed it then made a “hypothetical” offer of $100,000 to “challenge the intensity of her belief” that masks were an efficient type of protection against the virus.
The girl said she would decline the sum of cash, and Kirsch says it “highlights the madness of some people”.
“She believes it [the mask] works,” explained the exasperated tech mogul.
“I just wanted to know how people imagine this s–t,” he added.
Despite his vehement opposition to the lady, Kirsch described her as “very nice” and said their encounter at all times remained friendly.
He even showed her a tweet he posted about their meeting.
Kirsch is a Silicon Valley veteran credited with introducing considered one of the primary versions of the optical mouse in 1980.
He later co-founded Frame Technology Corporation, which was purchased by Adobe in 1995, and created the search engine Infoseek, which was sold to Disney in 1999.
His net value was reported at $230 million in 2007.
![In recent years, the tech giant has been accused of spreading](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008295436.jpg?w=1024)
In 2020, Kirsch created research fund for potential COVID treatmentspouring $1 million into the enterprise, in keeping with the MIT Technology Review.
Nonetheless, the publication reported that he has since turn into a skeptic about approved COVID vaccines and has been spreading “misinformation” concerning the pandemic online.
His Twitter feed where he describes himself as a “probable” and “critical thinker” links to articles which are also skeptical of COVID mandates and masking practices.
![Kirsch is a Silicon Valley veteran credited with one of the first versions of the optical mouse in the 1980s. He later co-founded Frame Technology Corp, which was bought by Adobe in 1995, and created the search engine Infoseek, which was sold to Disney in 1999. Pictured in 1987.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008297334.jpg?w=692)
But Kirsch told The Post he “never shared any misinformation” and said US authorities are afraid to release data that links the COVID vaccination to unexplained deaths.
Meanwhile, his “hypothetical” offer of $100,000 for a plane passenger will not be his first offer.
Kirsch has a Substack account where on March 9 he published a post titled “I offered people $10,000 to take off their face masks for 60 minutes. Here’s what happened.
“Masks don’t work, and even in the event that they did, people don’t cover their eyes, so mitigation is totally useless and pointless,” the businessman wrote in his article. “Still, persons are so fear-washed by the CDC’s narrative that they might turn down a suggestion of $10,000 to remove the mask.”
Last fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services each continued to recommend masking in certain circumstances.
In December, Los Angeles County considered reinstating an area mandate to wear masks indoors on account of the coronavirus surge, with some opposition from experts.
Just last month, a recent study suggested that widespread masking can have done little or nothing to limit COVID-19 transmission.
Kirsch’s fame has suffered amongst wealthy liberals in Silicon Valley since he began speaking out against official COVID measures.
Nonetheless, the millionaire told The Post that he doesn’t mind.
“I save lives – I don’t have any regrets,” he declared.