In a recent interview with Bill and Melinda Gates, the richest couple in the world discussed their commitment to funneling millions, even billions of dollars into wiping out diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and cholera. These age-old scourges have periodically decimated human populations since before recorded history. They flourish in poor conditions, bad water, and especially at the sites of other natural disasters.

Is it reasonable to think we can find a cure for these and many of the other plagues that piggyback on poverty and disasters? What a miracle it would be to have a vaccine against malaria. The mosquito would no longer be more terrifying than a tiger. Think how many millions of lives could be saved if cholera and dysentery would no longer stalk the sites of earthquakes, hur…