[jlawson]

Bill called this years ago. He's also incidentally done more to save lives from disease than possibly any other living human, having prevented millions of deaths by malaria and other illnesses purely because he wanted to.

There is lots of other information out there from doctors and scientists. We needed that and we got that. The point here is to get Bill's unique and valuable high-level perspective.

Nobody is 'waiting with bated breath for the pronouncements of the wealthy'; this is ridiculous and I think you'll know it if you read it back with even the slightest attempt to look at the situation neutrally.

[foldr]

>Bill called this years ago

Pandemics happen from time to time. Anyone can "call" the next pandemic.

BG is not an expert on any of this stuff and has nothing to add. We need less noise, not more, at times like this.

[logjammin]

If he's so prescient about pandemics, why didn't he spend the last 20 years, I don't know, making sure healthcare workers in his own darned city had enough masks and gloves to deal with one? Surely he could've saved a few lives in his own backyard while we was busy in Africa, right?

[kick]

Isn't this the wrong time for nationalism? If you can save a hundred lives somewhere, or save ten at home for the same price, why are the people "in his own darned city" more important? Especially given that "in his own darned city" there are other billionaires to handle that?

[raisedbyninjas]

This isn't how effective altruism works.

[mistermann]

Maybe it should be.

Think about it this way: had he done this, would it have made things better, worse, or no change?

And don't forget: had he looked into this, he would have realized that they were dramatically unprepared, and I suspect he would have been smart enough to assume that there was a possibility that the same state of affairs may exist in other cities, and then look into that.

Did this thought not cross his mind? It seems like an interesting question.

[glofish]

> Bill called it

If he really called it he would be prepared. Right now it sounds like he was just repeating what he heard from others for the shock value

You give a presentation on pandemic - you are the richest guy on the planet, yet you have nothing that demonstrates that you took it seriously, that's not calling it