Quick takes

Mental health is one of the most widespread, impactable, yet neglected global health issues of our time. Even knowing mental health conditions are generally under-reported and/ or misrepresented, evidence still shows widespread effects of mental wellbeing on physical health, life satisfaction, and productivity, however it has still not taken off as a major cause area in many EA organizations I have talked to. Why is this? 

Abi Olvera's Golden rice delay dashboard, includes BOTEC calculations and sources, supplement to her Substack article A blocked GMO rice could have saved 100,000 children. The same tech makes pineapples pink:

Mox Movie Nights watched Slumdog Millionaire today and it reminded me of the why behind the work. We're not here to EV-max, to gain impact points, to count utils. We're here because the world is unfair, suffering is prolific, and need to find a way through it. 

It is common in EA circles to compare deaths counts from some systemic problem to deaths from war. The implication is often that "actually war isn't that bad if you just look at the numbers". The latest being Bentham's Bulldog in an otherwise good article on Nestlé's harmful practices with baby formula (he doesn't say anything about war not being that bad though). I wish that this would stop because deaths aren't the only thing that matters. Below follow a number of claims that are based on my personal impression, not actual sources.  Injury and disability. Generally much more common than death, and the ratio of injury:deaths varies a lot per problem. (Admittedly, baby formula in poor countries seems to have a high disability burden) Trauma and grief. All deaths are grieved. But violent deaths tend to create a lot of trauma in the people around them, including from fleeing/displacement and separation of families and social ties. Economic harm. This is the big one. It sounds cold, but I think the emotional response people have to war footage is actually quite appropriate because of the economic harm. War creates enormous economic harm through the destruction of infrastructure, the displacement of people, and the prevention of (foreign) investment and productive activity. People lose their jobs, become refugees, don't build productive skills, stop education, businesses don't get started, etc etc.  Cultural effects & institutions. I suspect that war reduces the likelihood of tolerant, liberal democratic cultural norms and institutions developing. Instead, I'd expect vengeful, and extractive systems to become more likely. Overall, I don't think deaths are a good proxy for the total harm of war when compared to other causes.

An excerpt about the creation of PEPFAR, from "Days of Fire" by Peter Baker. I found this moving.

Some women on the Facebook support group "Cluster Headache Patients" comparing labor pain to cluster headache pain: * "Honestly, I had a natural childbirth and a cesarean and cluster headaches are 10 times worse than both." * "2 unmedicated births for me. Would rather do that every day than have another cluster" * "every day though, really?" * "yes. I'd rather go through childbirth without pain relief than CH." * "tenfold worse than popping a baby out" * "Nah, labour/giving birth is a walk in the park compared to ch […] I was in labour with my son for nearly 3 days, then the midwife had to break my cervix with her hands, but I'd still rather do that again than have another CH" * "Labor pain doesn’t even come close to CH! I’d choose labor pain ANY day over suffering from another CH" * "CH is a million times worse" * "I had 4 children, 3 were natural. CH is worse." * "I'd rather have a baby. And my placenta tore during all natural childbirth." * "I gave birth to 4 different babies. The smallest being 8lbs 14oz. The biggest being 10lbs 15oz. I would much rather give natural birth all over again than a CH." * "I've had three babies—one was overdue and born with his arm over his head. Having a baby is still cake compared to clusters."   These are just a few. They go on and on. (So far only one woman claiming childbirth was worse, who "nearly bled out in childbirth, got an episiotomy with zero freezing/drugs.")

A lot of people have criticized our planet's sole trillionaire as not humanitarian enough. But the truth is that Musk has done more for malaria than any man alive. Thanks to his work at USAID, nearly a quintillion more Plasmodiums are alive today!

The UK is set to pass a law that bans the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2008. Once the king signs it into law, the UK will become the second country in the world to introduce a generational smoking ban, after the Maldives did so last November. (New Zealand also considered such a ban a few years ago, but did not go through with it.)