> If research isn't harmful, but doesn't produce results, is that waste?

It’s certainly worse that research that does produce results. We should try to optimize for research that works.

And yes, in the extreme example of spending a lot of money and never getting anything of public utility, that would be a waste.

> What ratio of public utility to cost would you consider non-wasteful spending?

I wouldn’t use abstractions like “public health” and “public utility”. Which specific projects are funding or losing funding and what’s the impact?

> There is more upside (globally) to public health spending

Look inside the abstraction.