One item in Warren Buffett's three-hour session on CNBC this morning that probably raised a lot of writers' eyebrows was this:
BUFFETT: Yeah, it probably does. But the truth is, I would get people that know a lot more about it than I do. And, I mean, it--if you get the fellow that's written on health care recently in the New Yorker, Gawande. I mean, he had--he had an article last summer that was absolutely magnificent. My partner Charlie Munger sat down and wrote out a check for $20,000 to him and he's never met him, never had any correspondence with it, he just mailed it to the New Yorker and he said, 'This article is so useful socially.' He says, 'Just give this as a gift to the--to Dr. Gawande.'
I asked Dr. Atul Gawande if the $20,000 from Charles Munger ever reached him, and, if so, what he did with it. The doctor wrote back quickly with an answer: "It was a flattering gesture and I donated the check to the Brigham and Women's Hospital's Center for Surgery and Public Health for an international project I'm leading to introduce low-cost oxygen monitors in low-income countries without access to this basic medical equipment to reduce avoidable deaths."
