Given EA’s small share of the total global health/poverty funding landscape, the most likely effect of its investment on an expensive-but-permanent project is to speed the timetable up. So, for instance, perhaps we would get a hypothetical vaccine a year or two earlier if there had been EA investment. So, in comparing the effects of a yearly intervention vs. an expensive-but-permanent one, we are still looking at near-term effects that are relatively similar in nature and thus can be compared.
I don’t suggest that is true for all “permanent” interventions, though, so it isn’t a complete answer. It also might not scale well to a field in which EA funding is a large piece of the total funding pie.
Given EA’s small share of the total global health/poverty funding landscape, the most likely effect of its investment on an expensive-but-permanent project is to speed the timetable up. So, for instance, perhaps we would get a hypothetical vaccine a year or two earlier if there had been EA investment. So, in comparing the effects of a yearly intervention vs. an expensive-but-permanent one, we are still looking at near-term effects that are relatively similar in nature and thus can be compared.
I don’t suggest that is true for all “permanent” interventions, though, so it isn’t a complete answer. It also might not scale well to a field in which EA funding is a large piece of the total funding pie.