http://venturebeat.com/2016/09/21/mark-zuckerberg-and-prisci...
http://venturebeat.com/2016/09/21/mark-zuckerberg-and-prisci...
[1] http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/PolioBoth groups are needed, of course. But you giving the example of "curing" polio as an example of what the Chan Zuckerberg foundation is trying to accomplish is inaccurate.
I just think other than the prestige argument (which is likely what this is) they could actually do more work working with someone who literally spends more on this than the entire USG.
http://www.polioeradication.org/Portals/0/Document/Financing...
Which I don't mean as a criticism, it's just that they aren't really driving the effort, they are participating by providing a lot of resources.
I'd consider the entity with the most money in the game as the driver of really anything.
Based on what? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has plenty of money. Better for the Zuckerbergs to focus on other areas.
While we've had Polio vaccines and Malaria pills for years in much of the western world, much of the poorer parts of the world aren't so lucky. So instead of duplicating something that already exists and works well, partner with them and get it done faster together.
References:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/Negl...
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development...
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/Mala...
What is the point that I'm missing? They don't really want to cure all diseases?
“Thank you mark, it’s an honour to join you all after this incredible milestone. The Chan Zuckerberg initiative is already doing some very promising work in terms of improving education for all students (and so) that is a really thrilling thing.
And it is amazing that today they are taking on another bold challenge, this idea of curing and preventing all diseases by the end of the century. That’s very bold very ambitious, and I can’t think of a better partnership to take it on,” Bill Gates said.
But it's not clear there's any reason or benefit for them to be under the same central organization.
Plus they will be greatly incentived when working under their own label 'Chan Zuckerberg Institute' to make their own lasting impact on the world. Just pumping more cash into Bill Gates existing project isn't a very exciting driver. And motivation/morale is important with any big project.
Curing "all" disease is a bit more ambitious.
Not to say that in the end, Gates isn't helping more people today.
Unfortunately there isn't a requirement that the code developed under grants is released as open source, but there is a lot of movement to make it so. Furthermore, researchers have strong incentives to provide reusable software implementations of their research. (I know many people say the incentives run against this, but it is now clear that useful software gets more citations and scientists forget so at their own risk!)
I don't have a recent budget handy, but at least 10% of research funding is going to various forms of software development. I am happy to be shown wrong but 10% seems like a low estimate as literally all analysis is mediated by software. It's not like people crack out slide rules when they get a data set from a sequencer or mass spec. They go to GitHub and download some obscure domain-specific open source analysis package. Point being: a tiny administrative change could ensure that we direct $3B a year to open source scientific software in biomedicine! And further, it nearly looks this way already.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announce $3 billion
initiative to ‘cure all diseases’
The title contains a typo: s/initiative/investment/
From the article: Today’s announcement follows the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s
investment in Andela, a startup that trains and outsources work
to developers in Africa.