Tech pioneer Vint Cerf, one of the co-creators of the modern internet, has tested positive for covid-19, according to a tweet Cerf sent out Monday morning. The 76-year-old tweeted out a clip from HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about the U.S. response to the global pandemic.
“I tested positive for COVID-19 and am recovering,” Cerf tweeted. “Listen to what John Oliver has to say about our national response so far.”
Cerf helped create the modern internet in the 1970s while working at UCLA with other pioneers like Bob Kahn and Leonard Kleinrock. Cerf worked on packet switching for the ARPANET under Kleinrock and TCP/IP protocols with ARPA (now DARPA), the plumbing that makes the internet function.
DARPA tweeted its support of Cerf, telling him to get well soon.
Cerf has worked as Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist since 2005 and has won numerous awards for his work in technology. Cerf did not explain how he may have contracted the virus, but it’s pretty much everywhere at this point.
The U.S. has identified at least 143,532 cases of covid-19 and 2,572 deaths as of Monday morning, according to a coronavirus tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
Why is Cerf promoting an HBO show? John Oliver’s segment on America’s national response to the coronavirus pandemic is not complimentary, to say the least. Oliver skewers President Donald Trump and the inept response of some state officials, as well as Fox News. You can watch the entire segment on YouTube.
Best of luck and we hope you feel better, Vint. This is a brutal disease and everyone needs to take it seriously.