Will Trump's elimination of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) affect our health here in the U.S? Absolutely. It's just a question of time.
USAID provided humanitarian aid and other kinds of program support in well over a hundred countries, though the spending hovered around only 1% of our federal budget. Right now, if you search "USAID.gov" on the internet, you get a blank screen. Even the past has been erased. Trump's surrogate Elon Musk has called USAID a "criminal organization" that needs to "die".
We are a globalized world: pathogens travel on airplanes from one continent to another every day. Add climate change and other issues, and there's a lot of risk. What has Trump accomplished by defunding and dismantling USAID? Here's a partial list and a mere subset of possible health-related implications:
The longstanding partnership between USAID and the World Health Organization (WHO) has been destroyed. The US withdrew from membership in WHO on inauguration day. Both agencies, which have a history of collaboration, have lost funding. The WHO, created in 1948, has 194 member countries. We gutted funding for a partnership that detects, monitors, and responds to health threats, including pandemics and other infectious diseases, the world over. We damaged the supply chain that provides health services and crucial vaccines and medications that keep everyone safer. We have communicated to the global community that we are abandoning efforts to combat: HIV, Covid-19, Zika, malaria, polio, trachoma, malnutrition, Ebola, Mpox, avian influenza, maternal mortality, and chronic health conditions.
When we defunded USAID, we put ourselves at greater risk of succumbing to a host of diseases that are likely to surge and spread. Viruses are more likely to mutate and become drug-resistant, putting us at risk of pandemics. If this sounds a bit abstract and alarmist, consider:
Dengue fever cases in the Americas have nearly tripled since 2023, reaching to over 12 million cases last year. Cases have been reported in Hawai'i, California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Some cases are fatal. Surveillance and working toward broader vaccine availability helps protect everyone.
Before polio vaccination was widely implemented, the U.S. suffered epidemics that infected children at swimming pools, put people attending public events at risk, and caused paralysis and death. Polio has not been eradicated globally, but the campaign has made great inroads. Resurgences happen every time there's a lull in vaccination overseas, as they recently did in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We had 31 cases in the U.S. in 2022, which is definitely not zero. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who just became our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, famously claimed that the polio vaccine may have caused a tidal wave of cancers "that killed many, many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did." What cancers? How and when? There's no answer because there's no data, science, or truth to this claim. Visit the Dana-Farber Cancer Center site and you'll see the answer.
PEPFAR is the program that helps keep people infected with HIV/AIDS alive and in good health. The United Nations reports that it has saved 26 million lives since it was created by President George W. Bush in 2003. It has now been suspended, depriving people in 50 countries of HIV prevention and treatment services. Destroying PEPFAR will cause illness and death in many places, including here, and will be especially cruel to pregnant women and their newborns.
Tuberculosis is highly contagious and prone to becoming drug-resistant if medication regimens are interrupted. USAID worked with many global partners to prevent its transmission, locate those with infections, and make sure they get the medication they need.
Malaria has already come to the US. As the planet warms, we are ever more at risk of transmission. We've already had locally transmitted cases in Texas, Florida and Maryland. USAID had been working with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) very effectively, leading to a 68% reduction in cases in the Americas in the last 25 years.
USAID also worked on climate change, offered nutritional support to the most vulnerable, mitigated the illegal fentanyl trade, was an agent of anti-terrorism, provided prostheses to soldiers in Ukraine, and combatted child trafficking. In the medical research realm, we have abandoned clinical trial participants mid-trials, leaving them with no care even if they are being treated with trial-related medications or implanted medical devices. This violates a crucial ethical doctrine, the Belmont Report, which dates to 1978. Meanwhile, our new executive branch and its supporters are spreading lies about USAID as a way to justify its destruction.
We are flying blind in ways that will hurt us, not just billions of people overseas. In addition, we are ruining other crucial health agencies here at home and have put gag orders on communications by federal scientists.
I worry only about our health here in the U.S. I also care deeply about global health and humanitarian effort needs. The U.S. government is always self-interested and, indeed, a food aid USAID was providing overseas provided income to American farmers. When the Inspector General of USAID recently pointed out that up to a half-million dollars of such food, paid for with our tax dollars, might rot or be diverted, he was fired the next day by President Trump, who didn't want his constituents to hear such things.
When I started blogging in 2020, it was because of a health emergency: Covid-19. After a while, we got Covid more or less under control due to vaccine availability and viral strains that became less deadly. That wasn't just a lucky break. It was due to a massive research effort and global vaccination campaign. I care about your health and safety, and will keep writing as we navigate our uncertain future.
Photo credit: Designed by starline / Freepix
Comments