Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn't True.
Category: World News
Via: bob-nelson • 19 hours ago • 47 commentsBy: Malin Fezehai Sara Chodosh (nytimes)
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world's richest men slash aid for the world's poorest children,
the result is sickness, starvation and death.
Only a fool or a psychopath could imagine that people who have been surviving - barely - on USAid supply food and medicine, won't be harmed when that ais stops.
President Musk is not a fool, so I conclude that he is a psychopath.
There are links in the seed.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Roda Abdullay, 14, holds her 8-month-old brother who is suffering from malnutrition
That is not true. In South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and President Trump are already leading children to die.
Peter Donde was a 10-year-old infected with H.I.V. from his mother during childbirth. But American aid kept Peter strong even as his parents died from AIDS. A program started by President George W. Bush called PEPFAR saved 26 million lives from AIDS, and one was Peter's.
Under PEPFAR, an outreach health worker ensured that Peter and other AIDS orphans got their medicines. Then in January, Trump and Musk effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, perhaps illegally, and that PEPFAR outreach program ended. Orphans were on their own.
Without the help of the community health worker, Peter was unable to get his medicines, so he became sick and died in late February, according to Moses Okeny Labani, a health outreach worker who helped manage care for Peter and 144 other vulnerable children.
"If U.S.A.I.D. would be here, Peter Donde would not have died," Labani said.
Moses Okeny Labani
We worked with experts at the Center for Global Development who tried to calculate how many lives are at risk if American humanitarian assistance is frozen or slashed. While these estimates are inexact and depend on how much aid continues, they suggest that a cataclysm may be beginning around the developing world.
Achol Deng, an 8-year-old girl, was also infected with H.I.V. at birth and likewise remained alive because of American assistance. Then in January, Achol lost her ID card, and there was no longer a case worker to help get her a new card and medicines; she too became sick and died, said Labani.
Yes, this may eventually save money for United States taxpayers. How much? The cost of first-line H.I.V. medications to keep a person alive is less than 12 cents a day.
I asked Labani if he had ever heard of Musk. He had not, so I explained that Musk is the world's wealthiest man and has said that no one is dying because of U.S.A.I.D. cuts.
"That is wrong," Labani said, sounding surprised that anyone could be so oblivious. "He should come to grass roots."
Another household kept alive by American aid was that of Jennifer Inyaa, a 35-year-old single mom, and her 5-year-old son, Evan Anzoo, both of them H.I.V.-positive. Last month, after the aid shutdown, Inyaa became sick and died, and a week later Evan died as well, according to David Iraa Simon, a community health worker who assisted them. Decisions by billionaires in Washington quickly cost the lives of a mother and her son.
"Many more children will die in the coming weeks," said Margret Amjuma, a health worker who confirmed the deaths of Peter and Achol.
On a nine-day trip through East African villages and slums I heard that refrain repeatedly: While some are already dying because of the decisions in Washington, the toll is likely to soar in the coming months as stockpiles of medicines and food are drawn down and as people become weaker and sicker.
Angelina Doki
Doki told me that her own supply of antiretrovirals is about to run out as well.
"I am going to develop the virus," Doki said. "My viral load will go high. I will develop TB. I will have pneumonia." She sighed deeply and added, "We are going to die."
In South Africa, where more than seven million people are H.I.V.-positive, the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation estimates that ending PEPFAR would lead to more than 600,000 deaths over a decade in that country alone.
Some of you may be thinking: This is very sad, but why is it our job to keep kids alive in poor countries?
There are two answers to that. The first is that U.S.A.I.D. was established to advance our national interests as well as our values, and its demolition means that the United States loses soft power and China gains. Already, China has moved to replace the United States as the most visible supporter of Cambodia, and we'll see the same elsewhere, particularly in Africa and the South Pacific.
Antiterrorism programs in Syria and West Africa are faltering and may lead to new attacks on Americans. Surveillance for early detection of avian flu and Ebola are weakened, and an epidemic of either disease could reach America and cost billions of dollars. Trump's defunding of the polio eradication effort may lead, by one U.S.A.I.D. official's estimate, to 200,000 cases of paralytic polio each year.
The same official warned that the aid stoppage could lead to nearly a one-third increase in tuberculosis cases. Some of those will reach the United States and lead to enormous expense — a single case of extensively drug-resistant TB can cost $500,000 to manage.
The second answer to that query reflects not a calculation of self-interest but the moral code we live by. In this century, we are all blessed with miraculous, almost biblical powers: We can heal the sick and save children's lives, all inexpensively: America spends just 0.24 percent of gross national income on humanitarian aid. We properly honor a firefighter who saves a single child, but three cheers for us as taxpayers for rescuing millions of children around the world from AIDS, starvation and disease.
That is, until January.
You never forget the sight of children starving to death, so I wish White House officials could have been with me on this trip to South Sudan, where 70 percent of nutrition assistance has come from the United States. Malnutrition is common in poor countries — more than one-fifth of young children worldwide are stunted from malnutrition — and near the Sudan-South Sudan border, I dropped in on the remote Upper Nile town of Bobonis, where many children are affected. Staff members of a nonprofit supported by U.S.A.I.D. used to visit weekly to provide an emergency high-nutrition paste to save the lives of young children with severe acute malnutrition — but that program was ended by the Trump administration last month.
So now children in the village are starving. I quickly found a half-dozen children with severe acute malnutrition and getting no help.
Fatima Abdulai, 14, held her niece, Nadia, a severely malnourished 2-year-old, and said the household has been reduced to one meal a day of sorghum mush. It was midafternoon when I met them, and nobody in the family had had a bite to eat that day, including Nadia.
"Sometimes she cries from hunger," Fatima said. "Then we give her water to drink."
Some of these severely malnourished children will survive, perhaps with cognitive impairments, and others will die, especially if the malnutrition is complicated by some other ailment. At any one time, half of South Sudanese children suffer from malaria, diarrhea or upper respiratory infections, according to UNICEF.
Civil war and famine in neighboring Sudan have sent refugees fleeing that country into South Sudan. Some are unaccompanied children, such as a 10-year-old girl who arrived recently on her own. The United States had supported a program to assist such children near the city of Renk and ensure they are not trafficked. That is one of the programs that has been canceled.
In a village northeast of Renk, South Sudan,
people used to get U.S.-supported assistance,
but that aid has ended and now some children
are severely malnourished
Many of the refugees from Sudan are raped along the way by soldiers or bandits, and upon arrival in South Sudan they used to receive free medical care from a nonprofit supported by the United States. Their sexually transmitted infections were treated, and they were protected from H.I.V.
When I visited, those rape victims were on their own. Sexual assault survivors told me that it was now difficult or impossible for them to get medicines. After my visit, the nonprofit was able to reopen the clinic for the time being and serve these women, but there is immense uncertainty among aid groups about whether they will be paid for their work and whether such operations can continue.
"The bludgeoning of PEPFAR and U.S.A.I.D., one of the most eloquent expressions of American values ever created, might be America's most spectacular act of self-sabotage in generations," the musician Bono, a longtime leader in campaigns against global poverty, told me. "U.S. development assistance had its flaws, as its recipients often pointed out, but it was as close to poetry as policy gets."
South Sudan is one of the most dangerous places in the world to become pregnant, with women mostly giving birth in their huts, without medical care or trained assistance. While the statistics are uncertain, a girl in South Sudan thus appears more likely to die in childbirth than to graduate from high school. So on the other side of the country, in the northwest, I visited a maternity clinic that opened in December in Aweil East County with funding from the United Nations Population Fund. Until then, there was no health care available in the area, and moms and babies died regularly during unassisted childbirth in the home.
The clinic is a triumph: Since it opened with a trained midwife, Susan Ikoki, not one mother or baby has died.
Abuk Makak, 18, eight months pregnant with her first child, told me she is thrilled that when the time comes she will be able to deliver in a clinic, assisted by a trained midwife. "When people delivered at home, babies died and some mothers died," she said. "So I want to deliver here with the midwife."
Makak did not realize that unless her baby arrives early, that will not be possible.
The Trump administration has abruptly cut all funding, $377 million, for the U.N. Population Fund. As a result, the clinic is now scheduled to close this month, along with many Population Fund programs around the world.
How many women will die worldwide from hemorrhage, sepsis or eclampsia as a result of this rash decision in Washington? One gauge is that the Population Fund estimates that American financial support over the last four years prevented 17,000 maternal deaths, so that may be a plausible estimate of how many moms will die unnecessarily in the coming four years as American aid is withdrawn.
Trump and Musk are right that U.S.A.I.D. needed reforms. It was endlessly bureaucratic, and much of the money went not to the needy but to American companies that knew how to work the system. Yet what Trump and Musk undertook was not reform but demolition.
The future of aid will be fought over in the courts, and some remnants may survive, perhaps in the State Department and Agriculture Department. But it's hard for much to continue when Musk ridicules U.S.A.I.D. as "evil" and "a criminal organization," adding: "Time for it to die."
South Sudan is particularly hard-hit by U.S.A.I.D. cutbacks because it is so fragile, but in Kenya as well I found gaps emerging from the collapse of American assistance. In the Nairobi slum of Mathare, Zilpha Adoyo, a widow, told me that she has been able to find new suppliers of her basic tuberculosis medicine, but not for a secondary medication that relieves its side effects. So Adoyo struggles with painful legs and is no longer able to wash clothes to earn $1.50 a day to support her children. One child dropped out of school last month to help support the family.
Adoyo worries that medicine shortages will now worsen and that she will follow her husband to the grave. "I fear for my kids," she told me, and the interview dissolved into tears.
For those readers wondering how they can help, let me offer two suggestions. One is to check out Helen Keller Intl, which does outstanding work in nutrition and blindness. The other, for those focused on advocacy to reverse these American government decisions, is to engage with the ONE Campaign.
I recognize we cannot save every hungry child around the world. I agree that U.S.A.I.D. is imperfect and should be reformed. I appreciate that helping people is harder than it looks. I understand that there are difficult trade-offs in allocating tax dollars.
When you meet those dying children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can't bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame.
I've seen U.S.A.I.D. operate around the world, and it's not woke — it's lifesaving.
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The richest man in the world is killing the poorest children in the world.
In the name of "efficiency"...
In the name of the United States of America.
In YOUR name.
Killing children...
If this it true, why hasn’t Europe or china stepped up? Why aren’t you attacking them? They are perfectly capable of borrowing money to give away just like the US is. No one is stopping them from funding these programs.
Better yet why don’t billionaires like the soros family spend 700 million a year on saving lives in Sudan rather than funding racist democrats and pro crime prosecutors?
That's because Europe needs all it's money to give free shit to it's citizens, and China is using it's money to build it's economy and infrastructure, American leadership are the only ones dumb enough driven by liberal progressives to use it's wealth on countries that hate us while it's citizens go without.
“If this it true…”
If it is of some solace to stick one’s head in the sand, gnash one’s teeth in the incessant ‘whataboutism’ paradox, or offer up one’s apologies for the heinous actions of this debacle…it says nothing as to the reality we face and says everything as to how we have lost our moral compass.
Or billionaires like Musk and Trump.
It might interest you to learn that George Soros has actually done quite a bit of philanthropy. According to my little Google search just now, it’s about $32 Billion.
Open Society Foundations
I mean, you can work Google, yes? Have you tried asking how much aid Europe gives to Africa? I did.
They never say that about trmp or musk. It's only Soros that they go after. They never suggest that trmp and musk pony up money for charity
They also never check to see if any of these people do anything at all for others. Musk, for example has a foundation, but they largely are working on developing technology for his own businesses.
Get that strawman!
Or billionaires like Musk and Trump.
Because their partisans aren't demanding the American government borrow money from future generations of Americans and give it away to foreign countries.
According to my little Google search just now, it’s about $32 Billio
Lol. Open society foundations. Try a little more little google search on that.
He funds left wing activism.
I notice how those criticizing you have not even attempted to answer your questions.
You asked why hasn’t Europe stepped up. So how is answering that a straw man?
I thought people were dying because American aid was cut. Why hasn't Europe stepped up and replaced it? Europeans must lack empathy and be truly evil if they refuse to borrow money to save lives.
Im sorry, I didn’t realize this was too complicated a connection for you. I’ll try to dumb it down for you. Europe is already giving aid to Africa. Just as they already give aid to Ukraine.
Responding instantly, or near instantly, to the American chaos is probably not as simple or even feasible as your naive question implies. One day Trump issues an executive order, and a week later, a court invalidates it. And then Trump ignores it.
So the situation is changing so much, it’s probably premature to decide to take specific action. Even then, setting up or increasing their own aid would probably take time.
Lol.
ope is already giving aid to Africa. Just as they already give aid to Ukraine.
How do you still not get this? It doesn't matter. Why aren't they giving more?
America is apparently required to borrow unlimited amounts of money and send it to foreign countries, or each death in those countries is apparently America's fault and only America's fault. Every other country should be held to the same standard. so Europe is responsible for every preventable death that has occurred in this century anywhere in the world because it didn't provide enough funding.
How much of our budget do you imagine foreign aid is, anyway? Since you clearly can’t work Google, I’ll tell you. It’s about 1% on average. So if you think that Mutt and Jeff in the White House are doing something great for America by cutting foreign aid, they’re not.
So the money sent abroad could not possibly help at home so we may as well give it away as some virtue signal that we indeed ARE the world's police AND pantry as well as indoctrinating?
"A journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step". And so does tough love. Deal with it.
Member address in 1.1.12 promptly responded to comment. flags by other members were dismissed and comment stands as written!
I never know whether you know the facts, and are hypocritically hiding them... or are ignorant.
Generally, you know stuff, so I lean toward "Sean is being hypocritical again".
The EU gives more foreign aid than the US.
How about listing how much of EACH of the 27 countries in the EU are giving in aid, and of that, how many are giving more than the US annually.
Of course he knows how to Google. He doesn't necessarily post what he knows.
Soros uses some of his money for woke projects. Helping people, that is. And he's Jewish.
So naturally, the fascists hate him.
Obviously not enough Bob. Did you read your seed?
Those kids are dying and Europe could easily borrow money to send there. Yet they don't. France is killing kids in your name. Sad. Every kid who dies anywhere in the world of a preventable disease is killed by the EU and it's selfishness.
If those are the rules, everybody plays by them.
MAGA sometimes makes me sick.
MAGA shit on everything good and noble about America...
Hilarious coming from someone who belongs to a "party" that puts illegals over Americans and legal migrants.
I wonder if that is part of the standard loyalty-to-MAGA induction test.
Why? How about that’s silly.
The US has more money to start with than the EU, as a whole. US GDP is greater than that of the whole EU. About $28 Trillion compared to about $18 Trillion.
Breaking it down into smaller countries would be like asking how much aid Idaho gives.
What a joke.
How about listing the GDP (Gross Domestic Product, in case you don't know what it means) and population of EACH of the 27 countries in the EU, and make a country by country comparison of each country's annual aid contribution with the amount of annual aid contributed by the U.S. in ACTUAL NUMBERS relative to a percentage of each country's GDP and population. For example, list the GDP and population of Estonia, how much in aid Estonia contributes, and compare it as a percentage based on the GDP and population of the U.S. and how much the U.S. contributes. Make certain you report the source of all numbers supplied by you. When you have that completed we can make a reasonable assessment of whether any country contributes more or less than the U.S. based on equitable comparisons.
Or, do you believe it's unfair if Estonia, with a population of 1,365,884 and a 2023 GDP of $41 billiion doesn't contribute the same dollar amount as the U.S. with a population of 335,000,000 and a 2023 GDP of $27 trillion?
Whatever.....
Another leftist sob story. Humanitarian aid has continued during the search for fraud, waste and abuse in the system. Prove that anyone has died because of this temporary cessation of unessential aid
Mocking empathy for human suffering is not the flex you think it is.
Faking empathy is the worst kind of virtue signaling by those who don't really care.
It shows a lack of morality
Do you ever read the seed?
Can you prove any of those people died STRICTLY BECAUSE of aid being paused?
Is someone faking? Or are you just trying to be creative?
If pausing aid was a contributing factor to their deaths instead of the sole reason, is that OK?
Musk and Trump are equally void of empathy, which is the biggest marker of sociopathic personality disorder.
They are the epitome of evil
How much money have you borrowed to send to Africa? Take out a home loan and send it to Africa. You could save lives by doing that. Or do you lack empathy?
Nobody is asking Trump or Musk to send their personal funds to Africa, so why are you asking me to?
Pssst. They already are. Well they sure as hell are sending theirs and mine AND YOURS as US taxpayers.
You’re not clarifying anything. Why would it make sense to do what Sean asked? According to your logic we are all sending aid, just some of us are fine with helping starving people to not die, and others are whiny little bitches who don’t care when people die needlessly.
Not having personal contact with the results of this horrible decision it’s quite easy to ignore or justify it and sadly that is exactly what is happening, many don’t recognize the “soft power that we have projected and benefitted from over the years and the lives saved.
it seems from many of the comments that they are believers that the US can isolate itself and prosper, rethinking that premise is probably a good move.
When it comes to charity Trump is the last person on earth that should have any say inUsAid, the grifter that has screwed charities for some time.
Did any Amercian taxpayer, who is paying the bill, die?