Bill Gates's latest blog is titled: 'My new deadline: 20 years to give away virtually all my wealth'
He says: 'During the first 25 years of the Gates Foundation, we gave away more than $100 billion. Over the next two decades, we will double our giving.'
Read the blog in full here: https://www.gatesnotes.com/work/save-lives/reader/20-years-to-give-away-...
Universal access to reliable healthcare inforamtion - a world where every person has access to the information they need to protect their own health and the health of others - is feasible but it requires two things that do not yet exist.
The first is an explicit *political* commitment by WHO to champion universal access, and for WHO to convene stakeholders to develop a global strategy.
We have agreed with WHO a Collaboration Plan 2025-2027 to accelerate progress. https://publicspace.who.int/sites/GEM/official_relations_details.aspx?id...
The second is a commitment by a major funder, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to fund our Collaboration Plan. In terms of the Foundation's overall wealth, the amount required is negligible.
HIFA needs major funding to realise our vision. Bill Gates mentions 'inform' 100 times in his blog. Here are some extracts:
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"My hope is that people watch What’s Next? and feel like they’re joining me on my learning journey.
"Each episode focuses on a different challenge: artificial intelligence, climate change, misinformation, disease eradication, and income inequality...
"The overwhelming majority of families she visits want their children to be vaccinated. Some parents, however, out of fear or a lack of information, refuse to have their children vaccinated...
"The border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the cases were detected, struggles with insecurity and misinformation that can sometimes prevent vaccinators from reaching every child who needs the polio vaccine...
"In Pakistan, that has meant training 300,000 frontline workers who walk from house to house to vaccinate over 43 million children under the age of five; creating detailed maps for those teams to use to ensure no child is missed; running public information campaigns to inform communities about the risks of polio and the benefits of vaccination...
"Polio workers constantly battle rumors and misinformation about the polio vaccines. But by engaging openly with the public’s questions they’re making headway against this challenge...
"As COVID-19 swept across South Africa, one of the most pressing needs was access to public health information...
"But I still believe that if we make the right decisions now, informed by science, data, and experience of medical professionals, we can save lives...
"I visited the Germana Gale Health Post Site in Silte, Ethiopia, to meet with health extension workers and learn about the critical health issues they see, such as maternal and neonatal health risks, malaria, and pneumonia.
"This health post offers several services, and also provides training to residents and community leaders to help spread information and educate the community at large about health issues and available treatments...
"It was interesting to learn about some of the creative approaches being used to inform Nigerians about the importance of immunization...
"That’s why countries should have a strong regulatory infrastructure guided by experts with access to the latest science-based information."
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Back in 2006, HIFA was launched. At the same time, global health leaders challenged Bill Gates to address the 'thirteenth global health challenge': 'The Gates Foundation identified fourteen challenges but a fifteenth challenge stares us plainly in the face: The 15th challenge is to ensure that everyone in the world can have access to clean, clear, knowledge — a basic human right, and a public health need as important as access to clean, clear, water, and much more easily achievable.'
Since then there has been no response from the Gates Foundation (I have checked with the authors). On behalf of HIFA, I call on the Gates Foundation to commit to universal access to reliable healthcare information and to support our agreed Collaboration Plan with WHO to make this a reality.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org