August 29th 2012 Written by:Sayer Ji, founder
The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation launched the Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) in partnership with the National Institutes of Health in 2003 which, according to the GCGH website, is aimed at “creating new tools that can radically improve health in the developing world.” So far, 45 grants totaling $458 million were awarded for research projects involving scientists in over 30 countries.1
But where has all the money actually gone? Towards developing and implementing water purification and sanitation systems? Or nutritional support aimed at optimizing immune function? How about providing shelter and medical facilities for the homeless? Not even close.
For example, a $100K grant was recently disbursed to Seth C. Kalichman, professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, for “Establishing an Anti-Vaccine Surveillance and Alert System,” which intends to “establish an internet-based global monitoring and rapid alert system for finding, analyzing, and counteracting misinformation communication campaigns regarding vaccines to support global immunization efforts.” [emphasis added]
We can only wonder what organizations might be labeled as “misinformation communication campaigns” considering the fact that Bill Gates, in a Feb. 4th, 2011 interview on CNN with Sanjay Gupta said that “anti-vaccine groups “kill children.”" It is quite possible that any dissenting voice not in support of universal vaccination campaigns may be included in this type of “surveillance and alert system” as a potentially endangering the lives of others, i.e. “killing children.”
It is exceedingly difficult to view Bill & Melinda Gates foundation’s GCGH as a strictly humanitarian foundation considering many of the projects it chooses to fund …