EA started with a good idea: what’s the best way to donate $100? Bed nets! This is fantastic. What’s the best way to donate $1B? More bed nets? I’d prefer gov’t

EA started with a good idea: what’s the best way to donate $100? Bed nets! This is fantastic. What’s the best way to donate $1B? More bed nets? I’d prefer gov’t and infrastructure changes that lower the mosquito population in tropical areas. Similarly, if you’re concerned about pandemics, then govts should allocate some money and resources to that problem. The best use of donor money is to push politicians to pay attention to this issue. The article ends with MacAskill saying: “My No. 1 worry is: what if we’re focussed on entirely the wrong things?” The problem with too-longtermism is it’s impossible to know the context of these problems outside of a decade or two. For pandemics, no one thought we’d have a vaccine so fast. Perhaps in 20 years custom vaccines will come on the market in days. It’s impossible to know, so let the next generation figure it out.