GiveWell calculates that the malaria bed nets are highly effective on the whole, costing “approximately $3,000 to $8,000 to avert a death in locations where GiveWell supports campaigns.” That’s a trivial cost in the scheme of things: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency puts the “value of a statistical life” in the United States at $7.4 million, in 2006 dollars.
7.4 million as in the cost to the US Defense budget