Retracted my last comment, since as joshcmorrison pointed out, the vaccines aren’t mRNA-based.
Still, “Total malaria R&D investment from 2007 to 2018 was over $7 billion, according to data from Policy Cures Research in the report. Of that total, about $1.8 billion went to vaccine R&D.”
Moreover, I think there are structural reasons for relatively more of that funding to come from, e.g., Gates than from at least early-stage EA. Although COVID is an exception, vaccine work has traditionally taken many years. I think it is more likely that we’d see the right people approaching this work in an optimal manner if they were offered stable, multi-year funding. And I’m not sure whether at least early “EA” was in a position to offer that kind of funding on a basis that would seem reliable.
So it’s plausible to me that vaccine and similar funding was the highest EV option on the table in theory, and that it nevertheless made sense for EA to focus on bednet distribution and other efforts better suited to the funding flows it could guarantee.
Retracted my last comment, since as joshcmorrison pointed out, the vaccines aren’t mRNA-based.
Still, “Total malaria R&D investment from 2007 to 2018 was over $7 billion, according to data from Policy Cures Research in the report. Of that total, about $1.8 billion went to vaccine R&D.”
https://www.devex.com/news/just-over-600m-a-year-goes-to-malaria-r-d-can-covid-19-change-that-98708/amp
Moreover, I think there are structural reasons for relatively more of that funding to come from, e.g., Gates than from at least early-stage EA. Although COVID is an exception, vaccine work has traditionally taken many years. I think it is more likely that we’d see the right people approaching this work in an optimal manner if they were offered stable, multi-year funding. And I’m not sure whether at least early “EA” was in a position to offer that kind of funding on a basis that would seem reliable.
So it’s plausible to me that vaccine and similar funding was the highest EV option on the table in theory, and that it nevertheless made sense for EA to focus on bednet distribution and other efforts better suited to the funding flows it could guarantee.