John's family's 'biggest bet' against tuberculosis, announced on Thursday (2024)
project history · status: running · last event: milestone (2025-10-28)
Parts: John asks Filipino nerdfighters to join an email group for updates and feedback on the Philippines TB project (2024) · John: Guimaras could become the first TB-free region of the Philippines (2025) · John: with Guimaras as a blueprint, he might live to see a world without over a million TB deaths a year (2025)
Told alongside: Hank: USAID funding may stay interrupted for a long time (2025)
About: tuberculosis, Partners In Health, United States Agency for International Development, Philippines
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-03-12 | announced | John says that on Thursday he hopes to announce the beginning, and only the beginning, of that bet. (hedged) | How We End TB 00:04:20 |
| 2024-03-15 | milestone | Hank congratulates John on his work in D.C. and the big news going on. | The Worst Things About Not Having Cancer 00:06:20 |
| 2024-03-19 (happened 2024-03-14) | launched | John reports the bet's start: USAID's Thursday (14 March 2024) announcement of comprehensive TB care in Ethiopia and the Philippines, with his family giving $1 million a year to the Philippines project. → refers to How We End TB | Our $80,000,000 Bet 00:01:27 |
| 2025-10-28 | setback | John says USAID abandoned its commitment to fund part of the project, but PIH, Sarah and John stayed committed because the Philippine government did. | Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway 00:01:27 |
| 2025-10-28 | milestone | John reports that this month (October 2025) about 5% of the island's people have been screened for TB, leading to over 750 diagnoses and much preventive care. | Elon Cancelled This...Let's Do it Anyway 00:01:27 |
What is said about it
10 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2024-03-12 · How We End TB — announcement: John says there will be a major announcement on Thursday about his family's efforts to fight tuberculosis. — 00:00:00
- 2024-03-12 · How We End TB — John calls this the biggest bet of his life: a bet that we don't have to accept a world where so many people die of a disease no one should die of. — 00:04:20
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — announcement: John says he was also in Washington to announce his family's commitment to support comprehensive tuberculosis care. — 00:00:00
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John calls it in some ways the biggest bet of his life: a bet that we don't have to live in a world where over a million people a year die of a curable, preventable disease. — 00:00:00
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — announcement: Replying to a confused viewer in a comment, John clarifies the yearly funding is spent every year for the next four years, unless USAID pulls funding. (hedged) — creator comment
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — announcement: John reports that at a Thursday briefing USAID announced a program funding comprehensive TB care in regions of Ethiopia and the Philippines, meant as a blueprint and beacon for ending TB worldwide. — 00:01:27
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John says that in the Philippines USAID will give $10 million a year, his family $1 million a year, and the Philippine government $11 million a year, matching both. — 00:01:27
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John says over the next four years the project can have over $80 million for comprehensive TB care, starting in one region of the Philippines, which has the world's fourth-highest TB prevalence. — 00:01:56
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John says the project won't be easy and has real risks, but he is betting big because he believes it could transform what we think is possible against TB. — 00:02:55
- 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — announcement: John says this is not the end of their bet that TB can be defeated. — 00:02:55