In global health, there is enormous impact that government funding has on the development of new vaccines, antivirals, and antibiotics as well as other therapies. Much of that work is conducted at the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, that funds basic and applied research in infectious diseases as well as the development of new therapies.

Agency directors can further direct hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to key projects. Again, even if those are only, say, 10% as effective as funding that would be given outside of a bureaucracy, the expected value of those investments is quite large and can have a dramatic impact.

The FDA has an important role in being able to determine which kinds of drugs and vaccines are ultimately introduced. Despite it being a regulatory agency, there are really interesting innovations, and incentive systems, and reward systems, including things like priority review vouchers that can accelerate the introduction of new vaccines for important diseases.

Read the full transcript on effective altruism in government by Jason Matheny at Effective Altruism