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Gates Donates $500M+ To Fight Malaria and Other Diseases

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-the-suffering dept.

jones_supa writes In the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans, Bill Gates announced that he will donate over $500 million to fight malaria and other infectious diseases in the developing world. Gates described the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 4,900 people in West Africa since the beginning of the year as a "critical moment in the history of global health", and said it underscores the need for stronger efforts to stay ahead of disease threats such as drug-resistant malaria and dengue fever. The more than $500 million announced Sunday includes over $150 million to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to advance development of next-generation malaria vaccines, and $29 million to the Clinton Health Access Initiative to support malaria elimination efforts in Southern Africa and the Greater Mekong Sub-region of Southeast Asia.

7 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?

    How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

    How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by peon_a-z,A-Z,0-9$_+! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Your comment posted at 4:52PM Eastern Time, followed by such a "hater" comment at 4:53PM Eastern time below.

    2. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Informative

      How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

      Did he? Even if he wasn't as generous as Bill, it seems you are wrong:
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
      Now... how many Apple haters will try to use this to take cheap shots at Apple and to crap on the memory of Steve Jobs?

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    3. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?

      I don't know the man personally, but I don't see why doing something good should remove anyone's right to have some level of "hate" for the man. Setting aside the particular example of Mr. Gates, does it seem fair to say,"[Person X] has done a good thing. Therefore, nobody can dislike him or object to anything else he does!"

      How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

      I'm not sure why the those things should be connected, or how you can be so sure that Jobs "never gave a dime to charity". There's been at least a couple reports that Jobs did give money to charity, but didn't publicize the fact because he was very private.

      But again, what does that have to do with anything? I'm sure there fans of Apple who are not huge fans of Jobs personally. I'm sure there are people who admire Jobs who also admire Gates. I'm sure there are Windows users who hate Gates.

      How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

      Ok, I'll do this. I'm annoyed at Microsoft because they still haven't included support for non-Microsoft file-systems. Microsoft sucks!

      Now what? Have I offended you by criticizing the company connected to The Great Gates?

    4. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by arbiter1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      wow 10's of millions, from a guy that made billions off over priced devices. Pretty freaking cheap of them to only donate that pocket change.

    5. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by the+gnat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All he does is pushing corporate interests

      What corporate interests are involved in curing malaria? The entire reason that Bill Gates is subsidizing these efforts is that there isn't much financial incentive for Big Pharma to develop drugs for diseases that primarily afflict people in Third World nations.

  2. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by mythosaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're right. It is percentages.

    Maybe the 40 billion he's given in trust to the B&MGF should be in your totals.
    http://www.gatesfoundation.org...

    Gates has pretty much decided to give all of his money to the foundation by (and in the 10 years following) his and Melissa's death.

    Oh, and the other richest guy in the world is on board with matching contributions in the form of BH stock.