Gates Foundation To Start $100 Mil Fund For Unorthodox Approaches To Health

Wall Street Journal:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today will start a $100 million fund to nurture unorthodox approaches to global health, inviting scientists to bid for small, quickly awarded grants.

While other philanthropies and government entities have dabbled in backing offbeat medical experiments, the Gates initiative is among the richest and most ambitious donor-backed programs of this kind.

The initiative follows two disappointments in large trials whose results were reported recently. The trials showed that the cervical diaphragm and a vaccine developed by Merck & Co. failed to prevent infection with the AIDS virus. If the new tack by the world's biggest private charity bears fruit, it could pave the way for similar moves by other grant providers.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[avergejoe]

I have one.

Offer health care to those who cant afford it.

[Jackalheadedgod]

Health r.1.1. Allopathy has done pretty well, it just needs better delivery.

How about a massive dose of capital to solve the coming "long emergency" of diminishing availability of hydrocarbons. Seems to me that every roof in the US should be covered in solar panels.

Just a thought.

[MissingAmerica]

Congratulations to Gates once again for his generosity and spirit. It would appear he is doing for the world what Bush has neither the foresight nor intelligence to see as needed. Stem cell research could have gone so far in easing the global crises, but Bush's Christian values demand that he use that research money to fund war. In doing so, he his Christian values have dictated that millions will suffer and die needlessly so a few embryos can be adopted, come into being and grow to become a soldier to die in the bloodsoaked sands of the Middle East oil pot.

Thank God there are some good, intelligent people in the world who remind us that not everyone is as ignorant and twisted as Bush and Cheney.

[SmellyOne]

This is a good thing.

I like it when money from the private sector goes towards solving problems, leaving the gov't out of it.

[mamacat]

I don't get it. There isn't enough money being provided for conventional, proven medical procedures, or for birth control, for that matter. Why spend so much money looking for unproven ways to do health care?

[TJTelecaster]

I saw a great presentation from The AEI believe it or not all about Doctor Hillermen who create so many vaccines one from the blood of gay men an unusual process that bore fruit against Hep-A..

If C-span rebroadcasts it I recommend it highly presented by another great doctor..

Really interesting and informative such as Merck buying chicken farms and being at one time the largest chicken farm in America..

[MamaBird62]

I applaud the Gates Foundation for its efforts to bring modern medical technology to developing nations. Immunization is one of the greatest medical developments of our times. Smallpox is gone; polio is 99% gone, many other deadly illnesses have been eliminated from human experience in the developed world. Many of us simply would not be here today were it not for immunizations. That's a simple fact. Vaccines are made and sold by for-profit companies who won't sell them where it isn't commercially viable (as in Africa). This is where the Gates Foundation comes in and makes the difference. Their money has saved millions of lives. This latest effort to get more money into the hands of local doctors and researchers, as opposed to just US universities, is a brilliant strategy. No, I don't work for Microsoft or the Foundation. I just care about ALL the world's children.

[Kurt]

THE UNORTHODOX GATES or JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A BILLIONAIRE DON'T MAKE YOU SMART

Gates should leave the research to scientests and go back to making computers. A better use would be to donate the money to his local public broadcasting station or NPR who could then, investigate quack remedies etc.

From the President of South Africa (who denied HIV causes AIDS) to the Christian Scientests (who think everything is caused by the mind) there are alot of gullable people out there.

And we need less investigation and more rigorous reporting and education.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

1. Gates founded Microsoft, Microsoft is a software maker. They don't make computers, they build the software that enables you to type this bullshit. If your going to insult the man atleast make sure you know what he does.

2. Gates has never pretended to be smart, nor has he ever rubbed his billionaire status in anyone's face.

3. I'm curious to know what pisses you off more, the fact that Gates is one of the richest men in the world or that he and his wife give to the needy? If it is the former then you are a looser, if it is the latter your an non-christian looser.

[schatsie]

heck I was talking to somebody and they said those preservatives actually decreased the efficacy of the immunizations.

Bill needs to read 'The Status Syndrome' by Marmot and get real about healthcare.. This foundation is just a facade to dress things up... In fact his parents were rolling in dough and his grandmother lived next to Broadmoor Country Club in Seattle and his mother helped him pull the wool over IBM... The man needs to get real about his own company and their working conditions.

[ibsteve2u]

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gates:

In reference to your support of unorthodox approaches to to global health, I would submit to you that receiving $430,000 would enable me to pay off my debts, thus greatly reducing my stress level which is a known deleterious influence.

Sincerely,
Me

[Olerist]

Gates's money indirectly goes back to benefiting his investments.

His grant to WHO has enabled vaccine makers, which he has invested in, to send their mercury laden vaccines to third world countries even though they are no longer recommended or in states now against the law to give children.

Bill, help parents of already vaccine damaged kids to get the kind of treatment the vaccines makers don't want doctors to do. Kids are getting better.

http://rescuepost.com