Steven Todd Kirsch (born 1956 in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
) is an American
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.
An entreprene ...
. He has started several companies and was one of two
independent inventors of the
optical mouse. Kirsch has been both a philanthropic supporter of medical research, and a promoter of misinformation about
COVID-19 vaccines.
Education
Kirsch received a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
and a
Master of Science
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...
in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
in 1980.
Career

In 1980, Kirsch and
Richard F. Lyon independently invented the first versions of the
optical mouse.
Kirsch has started several companies. In 1993, he founded the search engine
Infoseek, which in 1999 was sold to the
Walt Disney Co.
He co-founded
Frame Technology Corp., bought by
Adobe in 1995. In 2002 he was CEO of Propel Software.
In 2005 he founded Abaca, which made a
spam filter.
In September 2011, he started
OneID to create a user-centric Internet-scale digital identity system using
public key cryptography
Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic al ...
to replace usernames and passwords with a
digital identity
A digital identity is data stored on Computer, computer systems relating to an individual, organization, application, or device. For individuals, it involves the collection of personal data that is essential for facilitating automated access to ...
compatible with the
NSTIC goals.
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.
COVID-19
In April 2020, Kirsch founded the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund (CETF) to fund research into
off-label Off-label use is the use of pharmaceutical drugs for an unapproved indication (medicine), indication or in an unapproved age group, dose (biochemistry), dosage, or route of administration. Both prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs (OTCs) ca ...
treatments for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
among drugs already having
FDA approval for other diseases, donating $1 million himself and also fundraising from others.
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.
Vaccine misinformation
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. 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.
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
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.
In October 2021, Kirsch founded the anti-vaccine group Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (VSRF), which created ads depicting deaths the group attributed to vaccines. 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".
Personal life
Kirsch and his wife, Michele, fund a charitable foundation, which by 2007 had given $75 million to different causes.
Kirsch also was a noted contributor to Democratic Party related funds.
In 2007, his personal fortune was estimated at $230 million;
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.
References
External links
*
Steve Kirschat
Politifact
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirsch, Steve
Living people
American computer businesspeople
20th-century American inventors
21st-century American inventors
American philanthropists
American technology company founders
MIT School of Engineering alumni
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Year of birth missing (living people)
COVID-19 misinformation
American anti-vaccination activists