Gavi do vaccines, something that governments and other big bureaucratic orgs sure seem to handle well in other cases. Government funding for vaccines is how we eliminated smallpox, for example. I think âother vaccination programsâ are a much better reference class for Gavi than the nebulous category of âsocial programsâ in general. Indeed the Rossi piece youâve linked to actually says âIn the social program field, nothing has yet been invented which is as effective in its way as the smallpox vaccine was for the field of public health.â Iâm not sure it is even counting public health stuff as âsocial programsâ that fall under the iron law.
Thatâs not to say that Gavi can actually save a life for $1600, or save millions at $1600 each, or that GiveWell should fund them. But impact of literally zero here seems very implausible.
Gavi do vaccines, something that governments and other big bureaucratic orgs sure seem to handle well in other cases. Government funding for vaccines is how we eliminated smallpox, for example. I think âother vaccination programsâ are a much better reference class for Gavi than the nebulous category of âsocial programsâ in general. Indeed the Rossi piece youâve linked to actually says âIn the social program field, nothing has yet been invented which is as effective in its way as the smallpox vaccine was for the field of public health.â Iâm not sure it is even counting public health stuff as âsocial programsâ that fall under the iron law.
Thatâs not to say that Gavi can actually save a life for $1600, or save millions at $1600 each, or that GiveWell should fund them. But impact of literally zero here seems very implausible.