Thursday, July 23, 2015
Francis Sellers Collins
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1507/23/wolf.02.html
CNN
TRANSCRIPTS
John Kasich Joins Crowded Republican Bid for President; FBI Director's Warning about ISIS: Hillary Clinton: Yes, Black Lives Matter; Trump Comments on Religion. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 23, 2015 - 13:30 ET
The director of the FBI is speaking out about what keeps him up at night. Still ahead, James Comey's one-on-one interview with Wolf Blitzer. What he says is the biggest threat to the U.S. next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:37:53] TAPPER: ISIS is not your parent's al Qaeda, that quote from FBI Director James Comey in a revealing one-on-one interview with our Wolf Blitzer. Comey was discussing bigger threats to the U.S., in particular ISIS. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: The threat that ISIL presents, poses to the United States is different in kind and type and degree than al Qaeda. ISIL is not your parents' al Qaeda. It's a very different model. And by virtue of that model, it's currently the threat we're worrying about in the homeland most of all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The biggest threat in the homeland.
http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/71211/Clancy_-_Rainbow_Six.html
Tom Clancy
Rainbow Six
CHAPTER 17
BUSHES
The important thing at the moment was that this national counterterror outfit was a potential danger. What if they deployed to Melbourne? Would that hurt anything? It surely wouldn't help, especially if there was an FBI agent on the team. He'd spent fifteen years in the Bureau, and Henriksen was under no illusions about those men and women. They had eyes that could see and brains that could think, and they looked into everything. And so, his strategy to raise the world's consciousness of the terrorist threat, and so help himself get the Melbourne job, might have gone an unplanned step further. Damn. But the Law of Unintended Consequences could hit anyone, couldn't it? That's why he was in the loop, because it was his job to deal with the unintended things. And so here he was, still in the intelligence-gathering mode. He needed to learn more.
http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/71211/Clancy_-_Rainbow_Six.html
Tom Clancy
Rainbow Six
CHAPTER 39
HARMONY
"Okay, you know that I used to be in the FBI. I know how they make their criminal cases. Making one against us will not be easy under the best of circumstances. The FBI has to play by the rules, and they're strict rules. They must read you your rights, one of which is to have a lawyer present during questioning. All you have to say is, `Yes, I want my lawyer here.' If you say that, then they can't even ask you what the time is. Then you call us, and we get a lawyer to you, and the lawyer will tell you, right in front of the case agents, that you will not talk at all, and he'll tell the agents that you will not talk, and that if they try to make you talk then they've violated all sorts of statutes and Supreme Court decisions. That means that they can get into trouble, and anything you might say cannot be used anywhere. Those are your civil protections.
"Next," Bill Henriksen went on, "we will spend our time here looking at the rich ecosystem around us, and formulating a cover story. That will take us some time
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Collins
Encyclopædia Britannica
Francis Collins
American geneticist
Francis Collins, in full Francis Sellers Collins (born April 14, 1950, Staunton, Va., U.S.), American geneticist who discovered genes causing genetic diseases and led the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) public research consortium in the Human Genome Project (HGP). In 2009 Pres. Barack Obama nominated Collins to head the NIH, a move that was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August of that year.
Homeschooled by his mother for much of his childhood, Collins took an early interest in science. He received a B.S. from the University of Virginia (1970), went on to Yale University to earn an M.S. and a Ph.D. (1974), and earned an M.D. (1977) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1984 Collins joined the staff of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as an assistant professor. His work at Michigan would earn him a reputation as one of the world’s foremost genetics researchers. In 1989 he announced the discovery of the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. The following year a Collins-led team found the gene that causes neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that generates the growth of tumours. He also served as a leading researcher in a collaboration of six laboratories that in 1993 uncovered the gene that causes Huntington chorea, a neurological disease.
In 1993 Collins, by then a full professor, left Michigan to take the post as head of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the NIH, which had begun work on the HGP three years earlier with a stated goal of completing the sequencing project in 15 years at a cost of $3 billion by coordinating the work of a number of leading academic research centres around the country, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Wellcome Trust of London. Driven by a sincere interest in successful research that could help humanity, Collins was an obvious choice for the job, and he willingly took a sizable pay cut to participate in a historic project.
The necessity of a government effort was questioned when a rival operation, Celera Genomics, emerged in 1998 and appeared to be working even faster than the HGP at deciphering the human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence. Headed by American geneticist and businessman J. Craig Venter, a former NIH scientist, Celera had devised its own, quicker method—though some scientists, Collins among them, questioned the accuracy of the work. However, in the end the public and private endeavours came together. On June 26, 2000, Collins, Venter, and U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton gathered in Washington, D.C., to announce that the rough draft sequence of the DNA in the human genetic map had been completed through the combined effort of Collins’s public research consortium and Venter’s private company. The breakthrough was hailed as the first step toward helping doctors diagnose, treat, and even prevent thousands of illnesses caused by genetic disorders. In April 2003, following further analysis of the sequence, the HGP came to a close. The announcement of the completion of the HGP coincided with the 50th anniversary of American geneticist and biophysicist James D. Watson and British biophysicist Francis Crick’s publication on the structure of DNA.
A practicing Christian, Collins freely expressed the awe he experienced as a leader in the uncloaking of one of the mysteries of life. As concerns arose about the moral and ethical implications of the research he had conducted, Collins actively cautioned against misuse of genetic information. At congressional hearings in July 2000, Collins urged the passage of federal law to set guidelines on how individuals’ genetic information could be handled. “The potential for mischief is quite great,” he said. On Aug. 1, 2008, Collins resigned from his position as director of the NHGRI in order to pursue broader, more flexible research opportunities. In October 2009, following his Senate confirmation to head the NIH, Collins was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, an organization that promotes advancement in the fundamental understanding of scientific questions and the investigation of ethical and philosophical issues associated with science.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marines-launch-operation-cochise
HISTORY
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
AUG 09 1967
Marines launch Operation Cochise
First Marine Division launches Operation Cochise in the Que Son valley. Meanwhile, the First Cavalry Division continued with Operation Pershing, a major clearing operation in the Binh Dinh province designed to improve the security situation in support of the ongoing pacification effort.
http://www.boeing.com/history/products/ah-64-apache.page
Boeing
AH-64 APACHE ATTACK HELICOPTER
Historical Snapshot
The AH-64 Apache was designed to be an extremely tough survivor under combat. The prototype Apache made its first flight in 1975 as the YAH-64, and in 1976, Hughes received a full-scale development contract. In 1982, the Army approved the program, now known as AH-64A Apache, for production. Deliveries began from the McDonnell Douglas plant at Mesa, Ariz., in 1984 — the year Hughes Helicopters became part of McDonnell Douglas.
A target acquisition and designation sight/pilot night-vision sensor and other advanced technologies added to its effectiveness in the ground support role. To reduce costs and simplify logistics, the Apache used the same T700 engines as the Army’s Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter and its naval cousin, the SH-60 Seahawk.
Highly maneuverable and heavily armed, the combat-proven Apache helicopter is the backbone of the U.S. Army’s all-weather, ground-support capability. The AH-64D Apache Longbow, which first flew as a prototype on May 14, 1992, provided a quantum leap in capability over the AH-64A. The Apache Longbow’s fire-control radar and advanced avionics suite gave combat pilots the ability to rapidly detect, classify, prioritize, and engage stationary or moving enemy targets at standoff ranges in nearly all weather conditions.
http://student.kfupm.edu.sa/s200276160/kfupm.htm
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Established September 23, 1963
Location Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
http://www.quora.com/KFUPM-King-Fahd-University-of-Petroleum-and-Minerals
Quora
KFUPM, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), founded in September 23, 1963, is a public sector university in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Among Saudi universities, it is highest regarded for excellence in its science and engineering programs.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980802&slug=2764257
The Seattle Times
Sunday, August 2, 1998
An Action-Packed Summer Read -- Tom Clancy's Latest Storms The Shores
By Melinda Bargreen
Seattle Times Staff Critic
------------------------------- "Rainbox Six" by Tom Clancy Putnam, $27.95 -------------------------------
Rumblings in the distance are growing louder, as a phalanx of trucks approaches local bookstores. There is a diesel storm rising.
Tom Clancy is back.
Yes, fans, the latest humongous Clancy doorstop of a book - at 752 pages, a veritable Cortez Kennedy among action-thrillers - officially hits stores tomorrow.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/30913702.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+2%2C+1998&author=PAUL+D.+COLFORD&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=3&desc=Cornwall%2C+Clancy+Leading+Summer+Charge
Los Angeles Times ARCHIVES
L.A. Times Archives
Cornwall, Clancy Leading Summer Charge
Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles, Calif.
Author: PAUL D. COLFORD
Date: Jul 2, 1998
Abstract (Document Summary)
Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six" (Putnam) will be available starting Aug. 3. Clancy, one of the heavyweight champs of commercial fiction and master of the techno-thriller, is delivering his first hardcover novel since 1996. He is bringing back John Clark, the former Navy SEAL from "Without Remorse," who takes on a maniacal bunch of terrorists this time around. First printing: around 2 million copies.
http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Six-Tom-Clancy/dp/0399143904/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408391541&sr=1-2&keywords=tom+clancy+rainbow+six
amazon
Rainbow Six Hardcover – August 3, 1998
by Tom Clancy (Author)
Product Details
Hardcover: 738 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (August 3, 1998)
1991 film "Flight of the Intruder" DVD video:
Title Card: The A-6 was the U.S. Navy's medium attack bomber during the Vietnam Conflict. It flew at tree-top level in any weather at night and alone. The aircraft had no defensive weapons. It was called - The Intruder.
Title dialog: Three Communist PT boats attacked an American destroyer off the coast of Vietnam yesterday, and today President Johnson's response was hard and tough. He has ordered the U.S. Navy to continue patrolling there, and if they are attacked, to destroy their attackers. [ Title dialog continues: ] President Johnson: I understand the feelings of those who regret that we must undertake air attacks. I share those feelings. [ Title dialog continues: ] Some nights, we're the only airplane going up - going up into the North and when you're thinking you're the only Americans over North Vietnam, it kind of makes you wonder just a little bit, you know. "What am I doing here?"
1991 film "Flight of the Intruder" DVD video:
Title dialog: Richard Nixon: The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker - Do you think it's worth it? Yeah, I... I don't know. They... they say we're fighting for something. I don't know
http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/71211/Clancy_-_Rainbow_Six.html
Tom Clancy
Rainbow Six
CHAPTER 27
TRANSFER AGENTS
Henriksen was former FBI. Perhaps that explained it. Like Popov, he wouldn't court failure in anything. Or did he really want this Rainbow group damaged to the point that it couldn't couldn't what? Interfere with some operation?
Again the brick wall, and again Popov struck his head against it. He'd started two terrorist operations, and the only purpose for them he could discern was to raise the international consciousness about terrorism. Henriksen had an international consulting company in that area, and Henriksen wanted the consciousness raised so that I could win contracts-but on the surface it seemed an expensive and inefficient way of doing it, Popov reflected. Certainly the money to be gained from the contract won would be less than the money Popov had already expended-or pocketed. And again he reminded himself that the money had come from John Brightling and his Horizon Corporation-perhaps from Brightling himself-not Henriksen's GlobalSecurity, Inc. So, the two companies were related in their objectives, but not their financial support.
Therefore, Popov thought, sipping his French Chablis, the operation is entirely Brightling's doing, with Henriksen as a support service, providing expertise and advice
–but, one objective was to get Henriksen the consulting contract for the Sydney Olympics, to start in only a few weeks. That had been very important to both Brightling and Henriksen. Therefore, Henriksen was doing something of great importance to Brightling, doubtless in support of the latter's goal, whatever the hell that was.
But what did Brightling and his company do? Horizon Corporation and all of its numerous international subsidiaries were in the business of medical research. The company manufactured medicines, and spent a huge amount of money every year to invent new ones. It was the world leader in the field of medical research. It had Nobel Prize winners working in its labs, and, his Internet research had determined, it was working in some very exciting areas of potential medical advancement. Popov shook his head again. What did genetic engineering and pharmaceutical manufacturing have to do with terrorism?
The light bulb that went off over the Irish Sea reminded him that only a relatively few months before, America had been attacked with biological warfare. It had killed about five thousand people, and incurred the lethal wrath of the United States and her president. The dossier he'd been given said that the chief of this Rainbow group, Clark, and his son-in-law, Chavez, had played a quiet but very dramatic role in concluding that bloody little war.
Bio-war, Popov thought. It had given the entire world a reason to shudder. In the event it had proven to be an ineffective weapon of statecraft - especially since America had reacted with her customary speed and furious effectiveness on the battlefields of Saudi Arabia. As a result, no nation-state today dared even to contemplate an attack on America. Its armed forces strode the world like a frontier sheriff in a Western movie, respected and, more to the point, feared for their lethal capabilities.
From 9/23/1963 ( the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals founded in Saudi Arabia ) To 8/3/1998 ( Tom Clancy "Rainbow Six" ) is 12733 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/12/2000 is 12733 days
From 12/7/1998 ( my first day working at Microsoft Corporation as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and the active duty United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel circa 1998 ) To 9/12/2000 is 645 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/9/1967 ( United States Marines launch Operation Cochise during United States involvement in the Vietnam War ) is 645 days
From 4/14/1950 ( the US National Security Council Report 68 ) To 9/12/2000 is 18414 days
18414 = 9207 + 9207
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 also known as Matthew Kline for official duty and also known as Wayne Newman for official duty ) is 9207 days
From 4/14/1950 ( the US National Security Council Report 68 ) To 9/12/2000 is 18414 days
18414 = 9207 + 9207
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) is 9207 days
From 4/14/1950 ( Francis Sellers Collins ) To 9/12/2000 is 18414 days
18414 = 9207 + 9207
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 also known as Matthew Kline for official duty and also known as Wayne Newman for official duty ) is 9207 days
From 4/14/1950 ( Francis Sellers Collins ) To 9/12/2000 is 18414 days
18414 = 9207 + 9207
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) is 9207 days
From 5/14/1992 ( as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps chief warrant officer circa 1992 and United States chief test pilot I performed the first flight of the US Army and Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow ) To 9/12/2000 is 3043 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 3/3/1974 ( premiere US TV series "Nova" ) is 3043 days
From 5/7/1992 ( the first launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour orbiter vehicle mission STS-49 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-49 pilot astronaut ) To 9/12/2000 is 3050 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 3/10/1974 ( Hiroo Onoda surrenders in the Philippines ) is 3050 days
From 8/18/1960 ( premiere US film "G.I. Blues" ) To 6/29/1995 ( the Mir space station docking of the United States space shuttle Atlantis orbiter vehicle mission STS-71 includes my biological brother United States Navy Fleet Admiral Thomas Reagan the spacecraft and mission commander and me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-71 pilot astronaut ) is 12733 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/12/2000 is 12733 days
From 9/12/2000 To 2/1/2003 ( the scheduled terrorist attack by Bill Gates-Nazi-Microsoft-NASA-George Bush the cowardly violent criminal reportedly destroying the United States space shuttle Columbia killing all United States and foreign national astronauts onboard United States Columbia spacecraft ) is 872 days
872 = 436 + 436
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/12/1967 ( premiere US TV series "Dragnet 1967"::series premiere episode "The LSD Story" ) is 436 days
From 9/12/2000 To 9/11/2001 ( the scheduled terrorist attack by force of violence to destroy the New York City World Trade Center and the Headquarters of the United States Department of Defense "The Pentagon" by Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-George Bush the cowardly violent criminal with massive fatalities and destruction ) is 364 days
364 = 182 + 182
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/3/1966 ( premiere US TV series episode "F Troop"::"The Day the Indians Won" ) is 182 days
From 11/3/1964 ( Lyndon Johnson reelected ) To 9/12/2000 is 13097 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/11/2001 ( the scheduled terrorist attack by force of violence to destroy the New York City World Trade Center and the Headquarters of the United States Department of Defense "The Pentagon" by Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-George Bush the cowardly violent criminal with massive fatalities and destruction ) is 13097 days
From 1/18/1991 ( premiere US film "Flight of the Intruder" ) To 9/12/2000 is 3525 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 6/28/1975 ( Rod Serling dead ) is 3525 days
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Speeches/2000/09/Bill-Gates-Global-Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates foundation [ RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 ]
PRESS ROOM
SPEECHES
Bill Gates - Global Foundation Address
September 12, 2000
Remarks by Bill Gates, co-chair
Good evening. Thank you Gus, and thank you to the Excellencies and Ministers who are in attendance tonight, and to David Miles, the Chair of The Global Foundation, which made this evening possible.
It's great to be among so many people who care deeply about these important issues. This is actually the first talk I've ever given touching on the foundation and the health-giving that we've been doing.
All day long I've been talking about the wonders of new technology and software. That's a very familiar thing for me, because I feel it very passionately but no more passionately than I feel about the causes that we're talking about tonight.
It's great to be here in Australia. My wife and I will have a chance to take a few weeks off and see a week of the Games. We're very much looking forward to that. The Games were last here in Melbourne back in 1956. I was one year old at the time, the same age as my son is right now. But it's interesting to think how the world has changed since then, and it's changed in some very, very positive ways. If you think of health, if you think of the situation that women are in, if you think of access to technology that lets people pursue their curiosity, we have come a long ways. And I think people who fail to see this rate of improvement and fail to have a lot of optimism about where it's going really are missing exactly what is going on.
My chosen field of work, building software, is certainly one of the big change agents that's driving this forward and even 25 years into my career at Microsoft I'd say we're not even halfway to what we can achieve. Sitting down with kids like we have today and talking to them about how they use personal computers and how they just take for granted, how they can just reach out to other people and pursue the topics they care about, it's a phenomenal thing. It's a thing I didn't have as a student growing up and it was really part of the dream of creating Microsoft that we could really make that happen and carry that forward.
So the good news here is that we can have incredible advances in medicine and technology. In fact, these things are so wonderful that we have to turn around immediately and say, 'what can we do to get broad access to these advances?' They're so important that everybody ought to have, it almost should be a basic human right to have these things, and we ought to set goals on a global basis for when we are able to distribute these things in a truly equitable fashion.
I decided at a very young age before Microsoft had risen to a level of success that I hadn't expected, that whatever wealth I had I would want to give back to society. It really had to do both with a desire to give to good causes but also a belief about not wanting my children to grow up with that burden. They may have a different view of it but, I made that decision before they could really represent their point of view so, it's a little bit late for them!
I definitely saw myself at a young age as waiting until I was probably in my 50s or 60s before I got significantly involved in philanthropy. But I started out doing some things in the population area and I started asking questions about health and what was going on in health. And you could say in a sense what I found out was bad news. I found out that the world is not as focused on this as it probably should be. And it was really based on that that I decided to accelerate the creation of the foundation on a measurable scale and go after health problems.
People might ask why I am doing philanthropy that is largely targeting poor countries of the world. Many of the foundations around the world primarily target the same rich country where the wealth was earned and although I have no dispute with that - I think it's fine - I think the balance ought to weigh more heavily in favor of the true inequities that exists on a fairly global basis. Warren Buffett is a good friend of mine and I often talk to him about this. He's also committed to putting his wealth into a foundation although he finds the idea of mixing the mentality of making money and giving money, he finds that schizophrenic! I admit, you've got to be careful not to bring one approach to one thing. If you mix them up you'll going to get it all messed up so I try to keep those two things separate.
In any case, he and I talked about what should be the criteria for giving and one idea he came up with that I think is pretty interesting, is that before you think about what giving makes sense you might consider yourself --think of yourself as somebody who's going to be born to an arbitrary womb, just randomly selected anywhere in the world. And what would you want to do – what changes would you want to make in the world, knowing that you're going to come into the world, you don't know what country, what sex, anything but that you're just going to be one of 6 billion citizens here. And certainly taking that perspective, you'd step back and say wow, it's really unusual, the billion people in the rich countries have health and access to very basic things that a high percentage of the 5 billion do not, and that cause I think would rise above all others.
Many people would have expected most of my giving could be in the area of 'let's give everyone personal computers, let's make sure they all have a lot of software', and there is a portion of my foundation that's involved in that, including getting computers into various libraries and making sure that teacher training programs are very strong. But over 60% of what we do is in world health area. And that's because I think it's far more basic. In fact whenever the computer industry has a panel about the digital divide and I'm on the panel, I always think: OK, you want to send computers to Africa, what about food, and electricity, those computers aren't going to be that valuable, if you don't do those things. It's a little bit like being a troublemaker, they want to sit on the panel and talk about how the computers will solve all the world's problems. They're amazing in what they can do, but they have to be put into perspective of human values. And certainly as a father of two children, thinking about the medicines I take for granted that are not available elsewhere, that sort of rises to the top of the list.
It's been fascinating to me, the doctors and people who have devoted their lives to this area of world health. The people at the foundation, I'm always saying to them, send me books about these topics, give me a chance to meet some of the people who have this passion, and it was really through those meetings that a lot of the priorities that we have come up with were set. On this, the vacation I'm on, you'll be pleased to know I have 14 books on world health and I consider that relaxing. Last night it was The Evolution of Infectious Diseases, a real thriller, if you're into these things!
Well, the big priority in our global health activity is vaccines. Vaccines are sort of miracle drugs in that, for very, very low cost, they can save millions and millions of lives. And in the 1960s and 1970s there was a push to get a program called EPI - it's some basic vaccines - out to the world at large. And that was really a fantastic thing. There was quite a bit of coverage, about 70% coverage achieved and so today vaccines save 3 million children a year that would not be saved if those vaccines weren't given. Now the percentage of the world's health spending that goes on that is less than 1%. In fact there's a simple statistic: that 90% of the world's spending on health goes to the richest 10% and 10% of the spending goes to the other 90%. And so it's a fairly interesting rule in terms of how the money is allocated. So we save the 3 million lives, the 3 million lives per year are being saved. But we're still nowhere near where we should be. In fact an additional 4 million a year could be saved if we took the vaccines we have today and made them available, the ones that you have here and in other developed countries, if those were available everywhere in the world.
And that's pretty dramatic, I remember being on my first panel talking about this and saying 'how can we articulate this?' I mean, I know how to get people excited about software but this number is almost mind-numbing. Millions of children. You could almost get up and say you know we come here to save a child's life. And I could put up a picture and we could all say 'hey, let's save that child's life.' That's one child or ten children or a hundred children or a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand. A million's a lot. And we're talking about many millions. And it's almost hard to relate to, it's such a large scale. It's almost better to go out and visit these countries and meet mothers who have lost children and see it in a very graphic way. But it's a real statistic, there are millions of children who essentially die unnecessarily and both by taking the vaccines we have in getting them out there broadly and in by putting money into new vaccines we can change this quite dramatically.
You might ask why aren't these vaccines being developed. Well as one of the biggest believers in capitalism I'll say that it works very, very well on most things. One thing that it doesn't work well on is if you have diseases that only exist in countries that are very poor. There isn't really incentive for these wonderful drug companies, either the new biotechs or the existing pharmaceutical companies, to focus on these problems. And so it's a case where you almost say you have a market failure. You want to have an incentive for those companies to develop these new drugs – they're the ones who know this work. You don't want governments to step in and have to fund it but you want those incentives to be there.
Often when people approach this area they come in with an approach that's a little bit counterproductive. They say to the companies that already have vaccines 'make those vaccines cheaper,' but if that's all you do then you're also sending them a message about how much they ought to devote to creating vaccines and so we have to break this paradox. And one way to break this paradox is by having funded money that is devoted to buying vaccines so people know that if they come up with a good vaccine that's competitive the money will be there even for the poorest countries so they can go ahead and take a risk. So this idea of a fund that's guaranteed to buy, can help break the cycle.
The overall story in world health is mostly a positive story but there are a few notable exceptions to that. What's going on with AIDS and tuberculosis today is a worsening situation, particularly with AIDS. And this is a case where the balance of money was actually allocated to a treatment. It's great to have a treatment for the people in the developed world who've got the disease and wonderful breakthroughs were made there, partly because there was a market. Very little money was devoted until quite recently to a vaccine for AIDS, and yet that is really the only real hope for the people who have it, the people in the developing countries which is where over 90% of those AIDS infections are taking place. And so a lot has to be done there and that effort has just started. No one knows how long it will take but certainly every dollar that's put in accelerates the date at which we'll have a vaccine and deal with the fact that the three top killers, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, are killing over 5 million people a year and that really shouldn't be necessary.
This Global Fund for Children's Vaccines has been created as a vehicle to get the funds in place to help out these poor countries. Melinda and I made an initial commitment of US$750 million to the fund, in the goal to get it up to US$4 billion. That should be possible. What that would do is generate enough income every year to buy vaccine for the 60 poorest counties. So the people involved in that have been going around the world speaking to various governments primarily but also philanthropists and so far, as Gus mentioned, Norway has made a fantastic contribution, the United Kingdom, and we're expecting Japan and Canada and the US to follow fairly soon. The United States is not quite at the level that we'd like, but every bit helps.
This is a case that requires leadership. Leadership to articulate the fact that the billion richest people in this world, if they gave basically about $20 a year to this cause, that the health standards could be largely equalized between the rich and poor world. Very few countries achieve that level today. Some of the Nordic countries, the Netherlands are probably the ones who are a little bit above it, and most are not quite at that level, and so there's a lot to be done here.
There's some new approaches that are really required. We need to strengthen the WHO, the world institution that really has this charter. There are very great people there but there's a lot that could be done to make it an even more effective organization. I'm heading off to India after a stop in Malaysia tomorrow. One of the things that I'll get to do when I'm up in India is actually give polio vaccine. They sent me some vaccine to practice so I'll be doing that tonight on the plane, there'll be people there with cameras and I'm sure if I do it wrong you'll be reading about it on the front page of the newspaper.
This is very exciting cause because polio is very close to being wiped out. There has been a big focus here, the people from Rotary were the biggest backers of this and because we're on the final stretch, just a little effort in the next few years can really make the difference, we can have certification that we are polio-free probably sometime in the next 2-3 years.
That's the second disease, that will be the second disease after smallpox that was mentioned, that's been completely eradicated. Now with many of these diseases there are reasons why eradication's not, should not, be the goal because it's not realistic. In fact, the world embarked on the idea of eradicating malaria very naively, not really understanding how it's spread or the science of it and for many years there was a lot of cynicism about these disease programs because goals had been set that could not be achieved. That's one thing that the community is trying to be a lot more careful about: really making promises that can be met, thinking about eradication programs and the new research programs and having the message be very, very strong there.
So I'm involved in this because I'm fascinated by it. I think it's very important. I've met as many interesting and smart people in this field as I have in the world of technology and so I'm looking forward to the years ahead as I get to learn more and help out more. The impact here is very dramatic. I'll just close by giving my thanks to all of you who are involved in this kind of philanthropy because I think it's incredible.
Thank you.
http://www.tv.com/shows/proof-2015/private-matters-3194000/
tv.com
Proof Season 1 Episode 6
Private Matters
Aired Tuesday 10:00 PM Jul 21, 2015 on TNT
Carolyn delves into the case of a programmer who died while using groundbreaking technology that may have recorded his death. Elsewhere, Zed faces a difficult choice about his future.
AIRED: 7/21/15
http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=proof-2015&episode=s01e06
Proof
Private Matters
[Knock on door] What are you doing here? I'm not allowed to come to your hospital to talk about our investigation, and you get upset when I ask you to come to my lab, so How about the phone? I don't discuss sensitive matters over the phone.
[Sighs] Julie is suing Turing Industries.
Is something burning? What does she want? She wants us to destroy the data all of it.
Can she do that? No, I own it.
And I have more lawyers than I can count.
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 3:30 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Thursday 23 July 2015
