NYT/Reuters: Gates Spends $287 Mln on New AIDS Vaccine Push

[DeepModem Mom]

Gates Spends $287 Mln on New AIDS Vaccine Push
By REUTERS
Published: July 19, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $287 million in grants on Wednesday to create an international network of 16 labs to try new approaches to making a vaccine against AIDS.

The foundation says it wants the program to transform the so-far unsuccessful AIDS vaccine effort by rewarding individual labs that come up with innovative ideas and helping them develop those ideas, but also ensuring that they collaborate with other researchers, who under ordinary circumstances would often be considered rivals.

"This is the foundation's largest-ever investment in HIV vaccine development. In fact, it's our largest-ever package of grants for HIV and AIDS,'' Dr. Nicholas Hellmann, acting director of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB, and Reproductive Health program, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

AIDS was first described in 1981 and the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS was found soon after -- but it has proven extremely difficult to find a way to make an effective vaccine.

The virus attacks the very immune cells that are usually stimulated by a vaccine, and mutates quickly to evade back-up immune responses. More than 30 vaccines are being tested in people now, but no scientists expect that any of them will prevent HIV infection in large numbers of people....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-aids-gates.html

[WindRavenX]

1. I hope the Gates bashers come read this

What he is doing is a godsend-- especially considering how hostile the current political enviroment is to science.

[OKNancy]

3. I agree

He has done some wonderful things.

[onehandle]

6. His operating system sucks.

Now he's making up for it. Good for him.

[babylonsister]

2. Now here is a man, unlike dimson, who will leave a humanitarian

mark on this world. Bless him!

[Spazito]

4. Kudos to Mr. and Mrs. Gates, they are walking the talk! n/t

[cboy4]

5. Maybe it was jealously, but I could never understand why some people

hated and continue to hate Gates so much -- just because he has a zillion dollars.

Turns out, he's one of the most generous rich people on the face of the earth. :grouphug:

Who else can claim they've donated so much money to important causes??

There's a long list of people who owe him an apology.

[pitohui]

7. good for him

a vaccine can't come soon enough

[Ian David]

8. SYSTEM ERROR- T4-cells failed to initialize during immune response n/t

[Ian David]

9. The Fundies will try to block this, just like the cervical cancer vaccine

Christian Fundamentalists need to fear punishment in order to behave "morally".

[Ian David]

10. See prior thread: Worlds richest atheists donate billions of dollars

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=82106&mesg_id=82106