Dear Editor,

One of the first agencies to be decimated in the Trump/Musk attempt to reduce government size and spending was USAID, established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to protect the world from global pandemics and help with the crushing poverty and famine throughout the world. It was and is a symbol of US “soft power,” a beacon to the world that the US cares.

A major consequence of the immediate firing of roughly 10,000 USAID workers in all corners of the world, is that we have lost the early warning system which alerts the world to major outbreaks of terrible diseases, such as the current Mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the hemorrhagic fever outbreak just recently occurring there as well. 

Stephen Morse of Columbia University says in referring to Mpox, “It’s a real mistake not to be doing everything we can to control this while we’re still able to.”  This world is more and more interconnected. It could be on the next plane coming to America.   

As a double whammy, Trump has taken the US out of the World Health Organization which was a major player in identifying and tracking the Covid pandemic. Note that it was Trump who dismantled the US agency that dealt with pandemics early in his first term, and then curiously chose not to inform the US public that Covid was airborne when he was informed of this by Robert Woodward. (remember when we were nervously wiping down all those surfaces?)

Musk, in a tweet, called USAID “criminal,” and Trump called the workers “radical lunatics.” One head of USAID during the GW Bush administration called the bashing of these loyal, knowledgeable, patriotic and committed workers wrongheaded. Many USAID workers work in extreme conditions in faraway countries where poverty and disease are rampant.

In the front entrance of the USAID building is a plaque for the many who have died in service to our country, such as by assassination, plane crashes while delivering essential supplies, or at check points in dangerous countries. The current famine and wars going on in Congo, and Sudan are examples of these. Many will die because of these firings.

Although this abrupt dismantling of USAID is on hold due to court challenges, no aid has been forthcoming, and aid workers were required to leave their country posts with no support from the US, and with little time to arrange their affairs.

One worker who spent the last 20 years working in Sudan and South Sudan was given 15 minutes to clear out his desk and wasn’t even allowed to take a picture of this plaque where his wife’s name was inscribed. What a disgraceful slap in the face.

The US is now turning its back on famine and disease in poor countries…or as Trump referred to them, “shit hole countries.” In addition, the chaotic and abrupt end to $44 billion in aid has been wasteful as hundreds of millions of dollars of food may soon rot in ports and warehouses, with no one to distribute it. Additionally, US farmers are paid billions to grow food that is distributed through USAID. Cancelling those contracts could cause economic hardship for US farms.

I read some comments on Next Door saying that corruption and graft are rampant in USAID, common right wing talking points, but without specifics. The above-mentioned Bush head of USAID called these allegations spurious: “tic toc examples” like a Colombian opera about a trans character or a D.E.I. music event in Ireland that captures headlines and then paints all US aid with the same broad brush.  

One other consequence of the loss of USAID is the supremely effective anti-AIDS program begun by GW Bush, called the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, or PEPFAR. According to the AP, “PEPFAR has been credited with saving more than 26 million lives and helping change the course of AIDS globally since being introduced in 2003.

But the 90-day freeze on foreign aid ordered by President Donald Trump effectively halted one of the world’s most successful responses to a disease” and left millions without these lifesaving drugs.

Globally, AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 69% since the peak in 2004 and new HIV infections have been reduced by 60% since 1995, according to the United Nations AIDS program.

“PEPFAR is the most efficient deployment of health resources I have seen,” said Professor Francois Venter of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, who has worked in the HIV sector in South Africa, the country with the most people living with HIV, for more than 20 years.

“I challenge anyone to tell me how we could have used the money better.”  The director of PEPFAR for South Africa said in an interview on NPR, that the US help in stemming the destruction of AIDS in Africa is what MAKES AMERICA GREAT! The fact that a woman can conceive a child with hope rather than despair is huge.  

It is commonplace with each change in administration in Washington to shift personnel and priorities, but this wholesale destruction of an important agency responsible for so much of global health is, as one commentator likened to “cutting off your arm to lose weight.” 

What is the rationale for gutting this important agency as well as so many in the federal government? Is it to give massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy with a few crumbs for the middle class?

Those bags of grain delivered to starving people say, “From the people of the USA.” I don’t believe this is what people voted for in the last election. There may be radical lunacy afoot here, but I don’t think it’s the USAID workers.  

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County