Michael Bloomberg Gives $300 Million to Johns Hopkins for Public-Health Effort - Wall Street Journal By Ron Winslow Sept. 15, 2016 11:03 a.m. ET Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating $300 million to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore to finance an ambitious effort to target opioid addiction, gun violence and other issues that are shortening lives and disrupting communities across the U.S. The gift, one of the largest among a recent flurry of major donations to academic research institutions, will endow student scholarships, faculty posts and public-health research, with a goal of improving Americas mediocre world ranking for life expectancy. The U.S. ranks 31stamong the worlds nations in life expectancy, says the World Health Organization, which estimates that Americans born in 2015 will live an average of 79.3 years.That is more than four years behind Japan, which boasts the longest life expectancy at 83.7 years, and trails essentially all of Western Europe. The WHO ranks the U.S. just below Costa Rica and just above Cuba. My country should be leading in life expectancy, and were way down in the pack, Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview. Weve got to do something about this. His gift is the latest by a wealthy American business figure focused on health research. Other recent gifts include $250 million from internet entrepreneur Sean Parker to establish the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at six major research centers; $185 million from banker and philanthropist Sanford Weill to the University of California, San Francisco for an institute for neurosciences; and $500 million from Nike Inc. NKE 0.62 % co-founder Phil Knight to Oregon Health & Science University for cancer research. The big donations provide what institutions say is crucial support at a time of flat or declining government funding for medical research. They also come amid advances in science and technology that researchers say are opening doors to major progress against a variety of health problems. Some donors say they see a clear opportunity for their contributions to have a significant impact. Mr. Bloombergs check, which comes during the School of Public Healths centennial year, brings his lifetime contribution to Johns Hopkins to $1.5 billion. Hopkins believes that is the most given by one benefactor to a single academic institution. The total includes his first gift$5 in 1965, the year after he graduated from Hopkinsand $684 million over time to the School of Public Health, which has carried his name since 2001. Its a lot cheaper to prevent than to cure, and its certainly a lot more humane, said Mr. Bloomberg, who amassed his fortune through his Bloomberg LP financial data and media company. As New Yorks mayor between 2002 and 2013, Mr. Bloomberg championed public-health initiatives, including smoking bans in bars, restaurants and public parks; food-safety improvements; and a controversial initiative prohibiting 32-ounce big gulp servings of soft drinks that was overturned in
court. He credits those efforts, as well as such factors as a declining murder rate, with contributing to a three-year increase in life expectancy for New Yorkers during his tenure, as reported by the citys Health Department, compared with a two-year increase in the U.S. in the same period. I would joke in speeches that people should get their friends to move to New York City, he said. While some of his other donations have supported global public-health projects, the new one is earmarked entirely for the U.S. One reason: A report in April from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that life expectancy among white Americans fell for the first time in 2014. Increases in suicides and drug overdoses were cited as a cause. The focus of the gift is on America and dealing with the core issues that have deleteriously affected American public health over the last decade, said Ronald Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to addiction and gun violence, the initiative targets obesity and the food system, adolescent health and environmental threats. These are areas we are already working in, but this gift is going to allow us to ramp up to warp speed, said Michael Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. But personal behavior is a critical underpinning of public health and persuading people to adopt healthy habits is a daunting challenge. Hopkins said the new initiative will bring in expertise from psychology, economics and other disciplines in addition to public health to develop strategies aimed at promoting sustained changes in individual behavior. Hopkins said $100 million of the gift will endow 50 scholarships a year for Bloomberg public-health fellows nominated by organizations throughout the country to get a masters degree in public health.In return for tuition, training and living expenses, the students will agree to return to their communities to work on public-health projects for at least a year. Another $125 million will support 25 new endowed faculty. The remaining $75 million will establish scholarships for a new doctor of public health program as well as support symposia to report on public-health research. Historically, public-health initiatives have focused on infectious diseases, leading to such developments as safe drinking water and sanitation systems, mass vaccinations against common childhood diseases and the near-eradication of polio. Infectious diseases remain a major challenge, as the continuing impact of HIV/AIDS and the recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika viruses show.But far more people globally now die of noncommunicable causes.In recent decades, much of the public-health focus has shifted to noncommunicable diseases and public safety as routes to reduce preventable deaths. The new gift reflects these dual tasks. We cant reallocate resources, said Dr. Klag. We have to broaden our mission and our tool kit to take care of these new challenges. Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@wsj.com