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We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

gatesnotes.com

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Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#21

Post by cma »

rmc wrote: post #11
cma wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And on the other side, the fake vaccine drive used to locate Osama bin Laden (or at least the leaking of it) might turn out to dwarf the September 11th attacks--it may keep polio from being eradicated. Hopefully it just delays the eradication. Back on topic: how does Gates want to address animal vectors for malaria? Nothing in the blog post.

I don't think it was a fake vaccination, they just got some extra blood. However it does prove that "it's all a CIA plot" is an actual possibility. Some charities (like MSF) are incredibly anti-political for exactly this reason. Some charities (like US AID) are not/

I should have been clear--it isn't that it was fake, it was that it caused many people in Pakistan to stop getting vaccinated.

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#22

Post by gambiting »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #20

> Armed with this 50-cent test, community health workers with little training can determine in minutes with 99 percent accuracy whether someone has malaria or not. Last year, we deployed 200 million of them in Africa alone. I found this statement incredible. My perspective is from someone who had a Malaria scare after coming back from Asia this summer and passing through Krakow, Poland. I had numerous blood tests to…

How long ago were you in Krakow?

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#23

Post by chrisBob »

As someone in the US, I didn't know a whole lot about malaria, but I have read about it a little over the past few years. It isn't much of an issue here, but historically it is huge. By some estimates, half of the people who have ever died were killed by malaria. Ever.[1]

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature1/text3.ht...

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#24

Post by zentropia »

hellodevnull wrote: post #8
ggreer wrote: post #5

Before the Gates Foundation and The Giving Pledge, billionaires usually did three things: 1. Buy fancy yachts. 2. Continue running the business that made them rich. 3. Spend a token amount on a feel-good charity. The Foundation to Prevent Euthanasia of Cute Puppies or Whatever. Gates has managed to convince them of another option: 4. Spend wealth to alleviate large causes of suffering that few/no groups are working o…

>More than 3.3 million people who would have died of malaria are alive today. This does make him sound like a saint, but is number of lives saved really a good metric? I mean, what's the quality of life like for these three million people, what's their life expectancy? I know this makes me sound like a horrible person but I think keeping extremely poor people barely alive looks good as a statistic and there's more wo…

If less children die of sickness people have less children and can feed them better.

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#25

Post by lnanek2 »

adamnemecek wrote: post #9
hellodevnull wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>More than 3.3 million people who would have died of malaria are alive today. This does make him sound like a saint, but is number of lives saved really a good metric? I mean, what's the quality of life like for these three million people, what's their life expectancy? I know this makes me sound like a horrible person but I think keeping extremely poor people barely alive looks good as a statistic and there's more wo…

> This does make him sound like a saint, but is number of lives saved really a good metric? I mean, what's the quality of life like for these three million people, what's their life expectancy? You can't really be improving living conditions of people who are dead can you. So it's a first step.

More people isn't necessarily a good way to improve living conditions, however. It is pretty common for deer populations to become unhealthy when predators are removed, for example, since with no predators they just over produce and then they all starve due to lack of tree bark. You end up with a sickly, miserable population.

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#26

Post by ekianjo »

ggreer wrote: post #5

Before the Gates Foundation and The Giving Pledge, billionaires usually did three things: 1. Buy fancy yachts. 2. Continue running the business that made them rich. 3. Spend a token amount on a feel-good charity. The Foundation to Prevent Euthanasia of Cute Puppies or Whatever. Gates has managed to convince them of another option: 4. Spend wealth to alleviate large causes of suffering that few/no groups are working o…

> Bill Gates is a living saint.

Maybe he just feels he has a lot to give back after what he did in the business world ?

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#27

Post by netcan »

hellodevnull wrote: post #8
ggreer wrote: post #5

Before the Gates Foundation and The Giving Pledge, billionaires usually did three things: 1. Buy fancy yachts. 2. Continue running the business that made them rich. 3. Spend a token amount on a feel-good charity. The Foundation to Prevent Euthanasia of Cute Puppies or Whatever. Gates has managed to convince them of another option: 4. Spend wealth to alleviate large causes of suffering that few/no groups are working o…

>More than 3.3 million people who would have died of malaria are alive today. This does make him sound like a saint, but is number of lives saved really a good metric? I mean, what's the quality of life like for these three million people, what's their life expectancy? I know this makes me sound like a horrible person but I think keeping extremely poor people barely alive looks good as a statistic and there's more wo…

I think this might be a moot point.

Malaria doesn't just kill. It maims. It scars families and communities. It impairs people's ability to earn. Childhood sickness inhibits the development all sorts of robustness later in life from physical strength to intellectual development. It makes certain areas underserved by public services and for profit services. It closes the doors to industries like tourism. etc. etc.

These measures aren't just extending life at the expense of quality. That's more of an advanced medicine concern.

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#29

Post by masklinn »

ggreer wrote: post #5

Before the Gates Foundation and The Giving Pledge, billionaires usually did three things: 1. Buy fancy yachts. 2. Continue running the business that made them rich. 3. Spend a token amount on a feel-good charity. The Foundation to Prevent Euthanasia of Cute Puppies or Whatever. Gates has managed to convince them of another option: 4. Spend wealth to alleviate large causes of suffering that few/no groups are working o…

Your descriptions are utterly out of whack with objective reality, and Gates's philantropy is very much in-line with Gilded Age philantropists like Rockfeller, Carnegie, Eastman or Rosenwald. Hell, Rockfeller very specifically championed and helped lead efforts against malaria (amongst many other causes).

Re: We Can Eradicate Malaria Within a Generation

#30

Post by deanclatworthy »

gambiting wrote: post #22
deanclatworthy wrote: post #20

> Armed with this 50-cent test, community health workers with little training can determine in minutes with 99 percent accuracy whether someone has malaria or not. Last year, we deployed 200 million of them in Africa alone. I found this statement incredible. My perspective is from someone who had a Malaria scare after coming back from Asia this summer and passing through Krakow, Poland. I had numerous blood tests to…

How long ago were you in Krakow?

2 months.
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