Four Things I Was Wrong About

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-05-12 09:22:00 UTC
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(photo credit: pixelthing.com)

1. Swine flu. It hasn't gone fully pandemic thus far. It doesn't seem to be spreading person-to-person outside North American. We're not out of the woods yet, but I really thought it would be pandemic already. I'd say it will be another six months before we can say for sure that I'm wrong, but it looks like I will be. (I don't mind being wrong about this. This is a good thing.)

2. Obama's global health budget. I skimmed it, I listened to the rhetoric. It sounded good to me. Pretty much every other global health advocate on the planet disagrees with me. There isn't enough support to the Global Fund, we're not doing enough for HIV, and the increase isn't as big as it looks. Guest poster Lillian Gu is working on a detailed global health budget post for us, but at the moment I can safely say that I was wrong.

3. Sharon Schneider has me somewhat reconsidering my initial criticism of the Gates Foundation. I was so focused on The Lancet's interesting conclusions that I didn't delve deep enough into their reasoning and analysis. Sharon points out that, among other things, "If the foundation didn't give large, multi-million dollar grants to trusted intermediaries, they would be attempting to get to know hundreds of smaller organizations, administer thousands of grants each year." I still stand by my belief that they have a chance to do theur work better, but I am less impressed with the Lancet's reasoning.

4. I am not sure this counts, but I really thought people would get a lot more angry about Matthias Rath. The man is selling vitamins as an HIV cure! What do I have to do to generate outrage around here?

Alanna Shaikh
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