Very interesting reading, I suggest reading the whole interview :
Cutting excerpt:
"
Another million kids dying each year.
Now, that’s not to say that it’ll go back to 10 million. And in the year 2000, when it was 10 million, did people know to feel so bad? Not as much as I wish they would have.
You have to go to Africa and see a malaria ward at the height of the malaria season. Or you have to see kids who are stunted. And weirdly, the incredible success of the last 25 years is not as visible to people as it should be.
But that also means that when people cut these things, will they notice?
They cut the money to Gaza Province in Mozambique. That is really for drugs, so mothers don’t give their babies H.I.V.
But the people doing the cutting are so geographically illiterate, they think it’s Gaza and condoms. Will they go meet those babies who got H.I.V. because that money was cut? Probably not."
And so you say, OK, it’s going to be millions —
You mean millions of additional deaths?
Because of these cuts, millions of additional deaths
of kids.
Were you surprised by the cruelty?
The reductions to U.S.A.I.D. are stunning. I thought there’d be, like, a 20 percent cut. Instead, right now, it’s like an 80 percent cut. And yes, I did not expect that. I don’t think anybody expected that. Nobody expected the executive branch to cut PEPFAR or polio money without the involvement of Congress......"
"III. ‘I Ended Up With This Gigantic Fortune’
So why now? The Gates Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary. What is the value of announcing its plans to sunset at the same time?
Well, it allows us to do a lot more because we’re not trying to steward our money for some weird legacy thing. If we were trying to be a forever foundation, instead of being able to spend $9 billion a year, we’d have to drop down to spending like $6 billion a year.
I’ve heard this described as a “bolus dose” approach — the medical term for an injection that gets meds into the patient’s system rapidly.
Normally we’re saving lives for $2,000 or $3,000. But given the problems that are out there, we’re actually now saving lives for less....."