Under this proposal, wealthy nations would make markets for vaccines by committing to purchase a specific number of doses at a specific price. For example, they might commit to buy 200 million doses of a malaria vaccine at $15 per dose, with developing countries contributing a modest co-pay.
This is a terrific idea, and long overdue. It is a great way to use capitalism to spur those evil greedy pharmaceutical companies to help the poor. But when you're arguing for a campaign to help the needy, try to stay away from this kind of statement:
Economists and public-health experts have estimated that such a commitment would save lives at a mere $15 per life-year, an extraordinarily cost-effective way to improve the human condition.
Sounds just a little bit cold and heartless. $15 per life-year, huh? Obviously, if it was $150 per life-year it wouldn't be worth doing, but since it's a "cost-effective" way to save lives...
2 comments:
Well put. However the dollar value of a human life is something danced around and approached but never too closely. I guess it is really not what a life is worth, but what somebody is willing to pay to save someone. Or is that the same thing? Using dollars just brings a clarifying chill to the idea. Even the good Samaritain went on his way leaving a few dollars.
A more systematic attempt to value human life and do cost-benefit analysis was the Copenhagen Consensus. I have mixed feelings about this kind of thing; on the one hand we do have limited resources, so it should make sense to do some kind of prioritizing; on the other, it just seems callous.
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