“They’re effectiveness-minded and with $60 billion behind them. 80,000 Hours has already noted that they’ve probably saved over 6 million lives with their vaccine programs alone—given that they’ve spent a relatively small part of their endowment, they must be getting a much better exchange rate than our current best guesses.”
What I’ve so far read in this essay is very good, however I’d note the foundation has spent almost 30 billion, a large fraction of it on vaccines (I can’t find how much with a simple search). The numbers suggest the cost per life saved is in the 1-2k range, or at least the high three digits. Which is in the same range as the AMF estimates.
In 2010 they announced that they would “more than double” their vaccine spending to 10 billion total, by 2020 (e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/health/30gates.html). That puts it in the mid-to-high three digits range, which is about three times better than AMF. I wouldn’t call that “the same range” as the AMF estimates, especially since it’s no longer so clear that those estimates even apply to marginal dollars given to AMF.
“They’re effectiveness-minded and with $60 billion behind them. 80,000 Hours has already noted that they’ve probably saved over 6 million lives with their vaccine programs alone—given that they’ve spent a relatively small part of their endowment, they must be getting a much better exchange rate than our current best guesses.”
What I’ve so far read in this essay is very good, however I’d note the foundation has spent almost 30 billion, a large fraction of it on vaccines (I can’t find how much with a simple search). The numbers suggest the cost per life saved is in the 1-2k range, or at least the high three digits. Which is in the same range as the AMF estimates.
In 2010 they announced that they would “more than double” their vaccine spending to 10 billion total, by 2020 (e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/health/30gates.html). That puts it in the mid-to-high three digits range, which is about three times better than AMF. I wouldn’t call that “the same range” as the AMF estimates, especially since it’s no longer so clear that those estimates even apply to marginal dollars given to AMF.