Gates: $10B vaccine program could save 8.7M lives

[RichardLinx]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/29/davos.bill.gates.donates/index.html

This guy is too nice. If I had that much money I'd rather be greedy and spend it on my own personal spaceship or something.

Crazy amount to give away. It's for a good cause though.

[dragos240]

Proof that gates isn't evil.

[JDShu]

Gates is a really nice guy, though I think that he should use his immense wealth to buy patents and allow everyone to use them. Could be naive though, since I don't know if a single person can afford that.

[Simon17]

Proof that gates isn't evil.

I wouldn't trust the guy who ran a convicted monopoly so easily. 8.7 million lives saved means 8700000 more people who can pay for ******* and Orifice.

[dragos240]

I wouldn't trust the guy who ran a convicted monopoly so easily. 8.7 million lives saved means 8700000 more people who can pay for ******* and Orifice.

And you really think that's the priority?

[whiskeylover]

I wouldn't trust the guy who ran a convicted monopoly so easily. 8.7 million lives saved means 8700000 more people who can pay for ******* and Orifice.

Wow! What crawled up your Orifice this morning?

I mean Office.

[Kai69]

This stupid thread again 10bn divided by 8million =

[Simon17]

This stupid thread again 10bn divided by 8million =

About 12 hundred dollars per person. A person can easily spend much more than that much on M$ software in his lifetime. How much do people spend each time they are forced to upgrade Winblow$ and Orifice?

[Marlonsm]

This stupid thread again 10bn divided by 8million =

$1250 for each. More money than many people have to take care of their own health.

Why do some people always think everything related to MS is evil in some way?
Gates is a nice guy, few people with all that money would actually donate those billions. MS does make nice products, it's their right to bundle whatever they want to their software and to always want a bigger marketshare.
They do make some things I don't agree with, but so do some Linux distros and some people related to Linux.

[Kai69]

A maleria vacine is only 15c a dose whats the rest for a bottle of champagne and a copy of W7:lolflag:

[donniezazen]

I wouldn't trust the guy who ran a convicted monopoly so easily. 8.7 million lives saved means 8700000 more people who can pay for ******* and Orifice.

Appreciate whats good & criticize whats bad.

[BuffaloX]

I suppose many more people will be more healthy than those that doesn't die.

I know Bill and Melinda Gates have invested a lot of resources before making this decision, so it's probably better than anything most of us could come up with just thinking about it for two minutes.

It would be nice if some more long term solutions could be found, like enabling/allowing Africa to make their own vaccines, which they often really can't due to patents. But that is probably impossible, and they do what is possible here and now.

[Marlonsm]

A maleria vacine is only 15c a dose whats the rest for a bottle of champagne and a copy of W7:lolflag:

The cost is not only the vaccine, you need lots of people to distribute it, for example, you need to take the vaccines to lots of small villages, there has to be doctors also.
And when you add up: Vaccine cost + Paying the doctors + Transporting everything to lots of places + Spreading the word on the villages about the importance of the vaccine + Some other care to some people = A lot of money. Maybe not all the $10B, but I'm sure the rest of it will be put to some good use.

Also, the target population of this money doesn't even have computers to install MS products on. So it won't help MS in any way, maybe some good publicity, but $10B is quite a lot of money for such a small publicity.

[warfacegod]

The cost is not only the vaccine, you need lots of people to distribute it, for example, you need to take the vaccines to lots of small villages, there has to be doctors also.
And when you add up: Vaccine cost + Paying the doctors + Transporting everything to lots of places + Spreading the word on the villages about the importance of the vaccine + Some other care to some people = A lot of money. Maybe not all the $10B, but I'm sure the rest of it will be put to some good use.

Also, the target population of this money doesn't even have computers to install MS products on. So it won't help MS in any way, maybe some good publicity, but $10B is quite a lot of money for such a small publicity.

You don't need Doctors to administer shots.

[RichardLinx]

You don't need Doctors to administer shots.

I think you're missing the point.

[whiskeylover]

I think you're missing the point.

You're missing the point that some people are anti-anything-MS no matter what.

Lets say, Bill risks his life to save a kitty from falling off a tree, they'd say that his intentions were to install W7 on the kitty.

[benerivo]

Vaccines can be very dangerous, and many people avoid them.

[Simon17]

Appreciate whats good & criticize whats bad.

Fair enough, but there's nothing good about the man.

[Kai69]

The cost of making the drugs is nothing its having to pay the patents license to use the drugs that cost, most drug patents are owned by the US.
Im not against what they have done a lot of rich people do this sort of thing all the time Bill Gates didnt need to SHOUT ABOUT IT I hate this look at me at what weve done crap.
Celebs have been doing this for years its sooo yesterday .

[whiskeylover]

Oh god! For bleep's sake, he donated 1/4th of his wealth. Lets see you do anything even remotely close to that, and then we'll talk.

[Simon17]

Oh god! For bleep's sake, he donated 1/4th of his wealth. Lets see you do anything even remotely close to that, and then we'll talk.

How about donating 100% of my source code?

[whiskeylover]

How about donating 100% of my source code?

And poor people in 3rd world countries dying of Malaria give a rats *** about that because...?

[Kai69]

Personal wealth or company wealth and was it tax deductable .
BTW with a family I still give $100.00 per month to the Red Cross do I shout about that NO..

[benerivo]

And poor people in 3rd world countries dying of Malaria give a rats *** about that because...?Because they would know what they were injecting themselves with...although better alive than dead.

[Kai69]

Hes a CEO he has accountants these people know how to cook the books !!

[JDShu]

It would be nice if some more long term solutions could be found, like enabling/allowing Africa to make their own vaccines, which they often really can't due to patents. But that is probably impossible, and they do what is possible here and now.

Agreed, its better than nothing.

[chris200x9]

Oh god! For bleep's sake, he donated 1/4th of his wealth. Lets see you do anything even remotely close to that, and then we'll talk.

That's saying 1/4 of your wealth is not relative, if I have even 4 million can I give away 1 million? Most likely yes. If I have 20,000 can I give away 5,000? Probably not. Not trying to belittle his donation but giving a huge amount of money when you will still have more money than any reasonable person could spend just doesn't seem like such a big deal. Plus it's good PR, if you really wanted to just "help" you would not have to broadcast what a good deed you have just done.

[whiskeylover]

PR? Tax deductions? LOL.. you guys crack me up. If either of you is an actual business owner, I suggest you take up the Business 101 course in your local community college.

[Kai69]

Hes after a Noble peace prize ](*,)

[hemimaniac]

It is a swell gesture, if a few more people in the ultra rich did more of that kind of thing it may start a pretty competitive trend,

[chris200x9]

PR? Tax deductions? LOL.. you guys crack me up. If either of you is an actual business owner, I suggest you take up the Business 101 course in your local community college.

I don't know what you find so comical, care to explain it?

[73ckn797]

I wouldn't trust the guy who ran a convicted monopoly so easily. 8.7 million lives saved means 8700000 more people who can pay for ******* and Orifice.
Really?

[warfacegod]

That's saying 1/4 of your wealth is not relative, if I have even 4 million can I give away 1 million? Most likely yes. If I have 20,000 can I give away 5,000? Probably not. Not trying to belittle his donation but giving a huge amount of money when you will still have more money than any reasonable person could spend just doesn't seem like such a big deal. Plus it's good PR, if you really wanted to just "help" you would not have to broadcast what a good deed you have just done.

Agreed. People all across the world give as much as they can, even when they shouldn't. I want to see a news story about a guy that gave away 1/4 of his mortgage because his neighbor or just some poor family in another country desperately needed food or medicine. That's who should be praised! Not Bill Gates! Not a guy that can use what he's got left to fund NASA!

If Bill Gates, in a fit of lunacy, liquidated all of his assets and gave it away to charities, do you think he'd be broke the next day? No, he wouldn't. His pals would toss him a few billion to get him back on his feet. He'll have earned all the money back within 5 years. Can any of us say the same thing about our selves? I know I can't.

[Kai69]

OK ultimatly where did all his wealth come from, selling windoz cds , Now who brought these cds we did , OK so its OUR 10bn thats paid for his donation because we were the mugs that brought a pc with his crapware on it .

[JDShu]

Agreed. People all across the world give as much as they can, even when they shouldn't. I want to see a news story about a guy that gave away 1/4 of his mortgage because his neighbor or just some poor family in another country desperately needed food or medicine. That's who should be praised! Not Bill Gates! Not a guy that can use what he's got left to fund NASA!

If Bill Gates, in a fit of lunacy, liquidated all of his assets and gave it away to charities, do you think he'd be broke the next day? No, he wouldn't. His pals would toss him a few billion to get him back on his feet. He'll have earned all the money back within 5 years. Can any of us say the same thing about our selves? I know I can't.

What you say is true. But give credit where credit is due. Many billionaires don't do anything like what Gates is doing with their money.

[KiwiNZ]

Thread closed