topnaman | Malaria blog

The NY Times covered some controversy surrounding the expanding influence of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The complaints highlighted by WHO malaria director, Arata Kochi, were two-fold: the risk posed to independent review and diverse viewpoints amongst researchers, and the unwelcome intrusion of the Gates Foundation in the policy-making process.

I think the real questions are not whether the Gates Foundation is or is not encouraging group-think or bringing unfair pressure to bare in policy formation. Rather, when deploying its vast resources, what process mechanisms can the foundation adopt to ensure confidence against the aforementioned concerns? It is a key challenge and a discussion both the Gates Foundation and the public health community need to have.