Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., has topped the list of the biggest donators in the computer tech industry in fighting the deadly Ebola virus outbreak. He tweeted late last week, “I’m committing at least $100M to #TackleEbola. Join me in helping those responding to this outbreak at http://TackleEbola.com.” Commenting on the donation Allen told The New York Times, “We’re up against an extremely tough opponent here. The exponential nature of the growth of this disease is really a challenge. We’ve already seen in the U.S. where one case quickly became two.”

Allen’s hefty sum of money doubles that of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has already pledged $50 million in fighting the outbreak, while not far behind them Mark Zuckerberg, along with his wife, Priscilla Chan, have donated $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation. Discussing the urgency of this kind of monetary aid Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page, “We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.” The last of the big four donators comes from William Hewlett, co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), who donated $5 million late last month.

Allen has really upped the ante in terms of donations, and his latest big sum comes on the back of an earlier donation of $26 million to government agencies and nonprofits, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The recent donation will go to organizations such as the World Health Organization, the United States State Department, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

In an interview with The New York Times he explained the reason behind the size of his kindness, saying “Everybody feels called sometimes to really pursue a certain thing that resonates with them, and this has resonated with me.”

Philanthropic backlash

To his credit Allen has experienced firsthand the difficulties of fighting disease in rural Africa. Except many of Allen’s followers on Twitter were not so impressed with his largesse. One poster called his donation “chump change”, while another stated, “That’s what you make a month on Twitch, right?”

It was revealed earlier this month by the World Bank that the costs of fighting the Ebola outbreak could reach up to as much as $32.6 billion. WHO official numbers state that at least 4,877 people have died so far in what is the world’s worst recorded outbreak of Ebola. It further states that 9,936 cases of Ebola have been recorded up to 19 October. And while the first case was of the disease was discovered in Dallas, TX late last month, part of the Western media has played down the spread as overblown, in terms of how much we should fear the spread of the disease in Western countries. It remains to be seen just how important these large – or not so large to some people – donations will be.

If you are concerned about the disease, there is some help out there. Earlier this month we gave some tips on how to track the spread of Ebola, while Google Inc. remains committed to providing the public with extra information about the disease. However hysterical or profoundly dangerous the disease might be to people in the Western world, it is better to be cautious rather than irreverent to advice. If you feel nauseous, or start to exhibit flu symptoms, then get yourself checked. In the very worst case scenario you may have to avail yourself of these donations.

photo credit: European Commission DG ECHO via photopin cc