in terms of saving “disability-adjusted life years” or DALYs, “a case of HIV/AIDS can be prevented for $11, and a DALY gained for $1” by improving the safety of blood transfusions and distributing condoms
These numbers are wild compared to eg current givewell numbers. My guess would be that they’re wrong, and if so, that this was a big part of why PEPFAR did comparatively better then expected. Or maybe that they were significantly less scalable (measured in cost of marginal life saved as a function of lives saved so far) than PEPFAR.
If the numbers were right, and you could save more lives than PEPFAR for 100x less money (or 30x (?) less after taking into account some falls in cost), I’m not sure I buy that the political feasibility of PEPFAR was greater than the much cheaper ask (a priori). At least I get very sympathetic to the then-economists.
(But again, I’d guess those numbers were probably wrong or unscalable?)
These numbers are wild compared to eg current givewell numbers. My guess would be that they’re wrong, and if so, that this was a big part of why PEPFAR did comparatively better then expected. Or maybe that they were significantly less scalable (measured in cost of marginal life saved as a function of lives saved so far) than PEPFAR.
If the numbers were right, and you could save more lives than PEPFAR for 100x less money (or 30x (?) less after taking into account some falls in cost), I’m not sure I buy that the political feasibility of PEPFAR was greater than the much cheaper ask (a priori). At least I get very sympathetic to the then-economists.
(But again, I’d guess those numbers were probably wrong or unscalable?)