I disagree with your point that saving the child’s life is something you need to continuously reinvest in[1]. But I do think that you’re pointing at something adjacent more along the lines of:
Giving out bed nets doesn’t fundamentally solve global poverty
Solving global poverty is better than continuously giving out bed nets
Therefore, EAs should focus less on bed nets and more on solutions for global poverty.
I kind of agree with this. Imo the only real long-term solution is economic growth. But that said, two points:
Saving a child’s has positive flow through effects that help with growth (for example, it returns many productive years back into the economy)
There are EA people who are also thinking about growth (here, here, here, or here) or science for global health interventions which also help (here).
Funnily enough, your Malaria vaccine is an example of something that Open Philanthropy Coefficient Giving has funded. They funded a bunch of malaria vaccine research, notably the stage 3 trials of one of the two vaccines (I forgot which one)
I disagree with your point that saving the child’s life is something you need to continuously reinvest in[1]. But I do think that you’re pointing at something adjacent more along the lines of:
Giving out bed nets doesn’t fundamentally solve global poverty
Solving global poverty is better than continuously giving out bed nets
Therefore, EAs should focus less on bed nets and more on solutions for global poverty.
I kind of agree with this. Imo the only real long-term solution is economic growth. But that said, two points:
Saving a child’s has positive flow through effects that help with growth (for example, it returns many productive years back into the economy)
There are EA people who are also thinking about growth (here, here, here, or here) or science for global health interventions which also help (here).
Funnily enough, your Malaria vaccine is an example of something that
Open PhilanthropyCoefficient Giving has funded. They funded a bunch of malaria vaccine research, notably the stage 3 trials of one of the two vaccines (I forgot which one)Once the child is >5y/o their chance to die drops a lot. Once you save their live once, you really don’t have to reinvest to save their life again.
(I couldn’t find the graph for sub-Saharan Africa, but it looks kind of the same)