It's official, we're back in the robber-baron age
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#32Not that this takes away anything from this generous philanthropic gesture, but this happens to coincide with Zuckerberg's recent purchase of a large portion of a Hawaiian island that certain reports say cost more than $100MM: http://mashable.com/2014/09/29/zuckerberg-hawaii/
http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-buys-700-acre...
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#33In the US, we hear that government and process gets in the way of getting the funding needed to be prepared or respond to these types of emergencies. Somehow I feel that only 30-50 years ago, there was not so much red tape in the way (nor was there the ability for a sophisticated/organized response - so it cuts both ways). I vacillate between thinking that just giving money will not make a huge difference here, and t…
As a former contractor for USAID I can definitely testify to the increase in red tape. This is mostly in the form of congressional earmarks.
Many people don't realize that just "getting money out the door" is an incredibly difficult task when you have the burden of so much bureaucracy. Most of this bureaucracy is well intentioned (e.g. vetting partner organizations for terrorist or narcotics connections), but taken as a whole it is stifling.
In fact, the USAID Mission in Kenya (USAID's largest in Africa) turned down increased funding in 2012 because they simply had too much cash and not enough staff to obligate it to organizations on time.
This ends up creating a heavily calcified aid "system" where older organizations with the ability to cope with legal/bureaucratic issues are the only ones who can survive. The average wait-time for a USAID payment is something around 9 months, so small start-up organizations are de-facto ineligible if they need immediate funding.
Obviously this is just anecdotal. However, the ultimate result that I have observed is that aid typically gets distributed to organizations (contractors) who are heavily entrenched and will generally take around a 50% overhead fee.
USAID has attempted to alleviate this problem through the USAID Forward initiative (which requires Missions to have a certain percentage of "locally owned" organizations ). However, once again entrenched aid contractors are best suited to jump through bureaucratic loopholes. For example, by incorporating country-based subsidiaries in locations where they are pursuing contracts.
Just my own take on why money isn't always the problem when it comes to assisting developing countries.
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#34I think it interesting that nobody here has asked the question why have Mark and Priscilla suddenly decided that they need to donate this amount of money? Has someone with inside knowledge of what is happening on the ground spoken to them?
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#35It's pathetic that a government agency is beholden to charity from billionaires instead of being fully funded from tax receipts. What a debacle. That said, hat's off to Zuckerberg. His reaction sharply contrasts with so much of the shameful, cynical fearmongering from some quarters.
Most experts think that Ebola presents low risk to US so I am not sure why CDC should spend significant resources on it. Private company is working on vaccines and at current funding CDC is perfectly capable of handling a few cases of Ebola in US. Voiding visas of everyone who was in Liberia, Sierra Leone and other affected countries together with mandatory three week quarantine for few US citizens who was there is p…
CDC budget for 2014 is $6.8B so 25 million is drop in a bucket anyway.
And the budget for the department tasked with responding to the Ebola crisis is how much?
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#36It's pathetic that a government agency is beholden to charity from billionaires instead of being fully funded from tax receipts. What a debacle. That said, hat's off to Zuckerberg. His reaction sharply contrasts with so much of the shameful, cynical fearmongering from some quarters.
Call me "shameful, cynical [and] fearmongering" but I don't think the ineffectiveness of the CDC on Ebola is due to lack of resources or that $25 million will make a difference. They have a $6 billion plus annual budget ($25 million is a 0.4% increase) and rarely pay for the actual treatment of patients. Instead they are primarily supposed to do research and disseminate information in advance of health threats. I thi…
They have a $6 billion plus annual budget ($25 million is a 0.4% increase).
That's why the Zucks made what's called a "targeted donation." Just because an agency has a budge for $X.y billion doesn't mean they can slosh it around to overloaded departments at the drop of a hat.
Or are you proposing that the CDC just lay off half of the Atlanta office, and devote those resources to Ebola prevention?
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#37It's pathetic that a government agency is beholden to charity from billionaires instead of being fully funded from tax receipts. What a debacle. That said, hat's off to Zuckerberg. His reaction sharply contrasts with so much of the shameful, cynical fearmongering from some quarters.
Call me "shameful, cynical [and] fearmongering" but I don't think the ineffectiveness of the CDC on Ebola is due to lack of resources or that $25 million will make a difference. They have a $6 billion plus annual budget ($25 million is a 0.4% increase) and rarely pay for the actual treatment of patients. Instead they are primarily supposed to do research and disseminate information in advance of health threats. I thi…
I don't get it. There's 1 domestically transmitted case of Ebola. There are ~200 new cases of leprosy per year. How much more effective do you want them to be?
And sticker shock aside, $6B is less that any annual super-pharma R&D budget that I was able to find in a brief search (Merck, Pfizer, GSK). And that is just R&D, not even SG&A.
edit: look, they can fit all domestic rabies cases in a small table on a single page: http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/human_ra... The CDC is a bunch of miracle workers, in partnership with medical and pharmaceutical advances. Does anyone recall that no less than 100 years ago the US has a president that was partially paralyzed by a disease that afflicted 20K/yr that is now domestically eradicated?
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#38For extra fun, compare and contrast with his simultaneous $100M purchase of a 700-acre waterfront estate in Kauai:
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#39I know Zuckerberg is rich from creating Facebook, but where did Chan find her stash of money? Or are they donating Mark's money but using both people names? Asking out of curiosity, not trying to make some dumb point.
"but where did Chan find her stash of money"
The indignation of the form of your question is remarkable.
But to answer your question: It's probably funneled through their foundation, which they would, of course, name and manage together. Because, ya know, they're married.
Re: Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Donating $25M to the CDC Foundation
#40I think it interesting that nobody here has asked the question why have Mark and Priscilla suddenly decided that they need to donate this amount of money? Has someone with inside knowledge of what is happening on the ground spoken to them?
Have you read the front page of the news recently?