Buterin, Nailwal double down on funding Covid-19 research

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal have joined forces to support additional Covid-19 research projects through Nailwal’s Crypto Relief fund. In pursuit of this objective, Buterin has been awarded a generous $90 million grant by Nailwal on Thursday.

Crypto Relief was started by Nailwal in April 2021 after India experienced its second Covid-19 wave. Buterin is perhaps the largest contributor to the fund, donating $1 billion worth of shiba inu (SHIB) in May 2021. 

The fund has since disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars, most of that money being from Buterin. In January 2022, the fund gave a $100 million grant to Buterin so he could put that money toward his preferred projects.

Crypto Relief is now doubling down, with Nailwal announcing he’s giving Buterin 90 million USDC from his original SHIB donation. Buterin said he’ll also kick in $10 million of his own money. 

Nailwal took to Twitter on Thursday to let people in on Buterin’s humanitarian side and to express his approval of the “moonshot” projects Buterin has funded in an effort to prevent future pandemics.

“[Buterin] feels for the problems of the world, problems of the poor and the underprivileged,” Nailwal wrote. “I am very happy with some of the projects he and his team has funded and some of them need some more push to reach their final completion.”

One of Buterin’s research focuses will be on long Covid, which he says has “the most salient risks” going forward. 

He added that studies of samples of wastewater have led him to the conclusion that “viral persistence” is a “deep cause of Long Covid.”

Buterin also wants to figure out how to improve air filtration and ventilation in buildings around the world, should there be another pandemic. 

Buterin ended his Twitter thread stating that pandemics will continue to be a risk throughout the 21st century, something humans will have to grapple with, he said.

“Pandemics beyond Covid continue to be a large risk in the 21st century. We look forward to continuing our efforts to better live with airborne viruses and eventually live without them,” he wrote. 

He continued, “And we can stop airborne pathogens with clean air the same way that we stopped cholera over 100 years ago with clean water.”

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