The fact is that Bill Gates has the power to do something that most of the rest of us can’t: change the world on a grand scale. Sure, all of us can do small things to make the world a better place, and making it worse is probably an even easier task. But Bill Gates has the leverage to jumpstart health care innovation and push for change in aid organizations. A few months ago, I cheered him for his commitment to fund infant immunization, and I continue to be impressed by his vision and understanding the dramatic effect that poor health care has on developing nations.

In an article in National Review today, I found even more reasons to admire Gates.

Bill Gates addressed the delegates at the opening session of the 58th World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual rule-making confab. He came bearing gifts. But he also came bearing a message, one that offers a vision for tackling global health problems and stands in striking contrast to the way global-health bureaucrats have routinely conducted business.

In recent years Gates has expressed a keen concern for global health issues and made that interest manifest through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates believes in the power of human ingenuity to develop products that address the “staggering disease burden unknown in the rich world.” Many global health problems — from HIV/AIDS to malaria to tuberculosis — can only be tackled with ingenious technologies. Gates aims, through his philanthropy, to provide incentives for their development, providing the capital necessary to unlock the creative, entrepreneurial genius within the world’s science community.

Admirable and impressive are the two thoughts that came most immediately to my mind--although, I worry, working with WHO might be enough to destroy his good intentions. The article gave me an even lower impression of WHO than I thought was possible; hopefully Gates’ leverage is enough to help change the way the bureaucrats do business.

Read the rest.