‘Uganda’s Ebola outbreak took place on the same day as freezing foreign aid. Nevertheless, the waiver for assistance in addressing the outbreak quickly reinstated, ”the State Department told Wired in a statement. “It’s a process. If mistakes are made, they will be marked and corrected as necessary, as they strive to do what is best for the American people. “
Other life -saving USAID programs that seemedly granted humanitarian waiver experienced similar issues. Earlier this month, Wired reported that the Food Aid and Famine Prevention Program only remains active, despite receiving a waiver, with many of the workers who implemented, or dismissed the program. This is still true today. “We have not been able to resume any activities yet,” said Payal Chandiramani, a spokesman for chemonics, the international firm that implements a large part of the program.
Meanwhile, life -saving AIDS and HIV programs are not resuming. The president’s ENIDS relief emergency plan is one of USAID’s most successful success stories, which is credited to save more than 26 million lives, as former President George W. Bush founded the program in 2003. About the same time, Musk made a joke about his USAID errors with Trump officials, Pepfar’s supporters met for a protest march in Washington, DC, to attract attention to the impact of these programs. Despite receiving a waiver, Pepfar was unable to resume his work, along with other AIDS-related programs, with financing and staff obstructing the program. “The waiver hasn’t worked yet,” said Emory Babcock, a former USAID contractor who worked on Pepfar at the beginning of Doge’s cuts.
On the same day as the remarks of Musk, the Trump administration ended more than 10,000 global health grants from USAID and the State Department and killed a variety of services that received a life -saving waiver.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, a non -profit organization that often receives and works with Pepfar with Pepfar on Wednesday announced that three of its project agreements with USAID have ended, despite previously getting approval to resume activities under the Pepfar waver. The programs support over 350,000 patients in Lesotho, Eswatini and Tanzania, including 10,000 children. “There’s nothing left,” Russell says. “The collateral damage is stacks of bodies.”
Although a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily fulfill foreign aid funds and payments owed to contractors around the world, the Supreme Court remained the order on Wednesday night, including those who work to prevent infectious diseases in Africa – which are not paid for services.
Meanwhile, a new, deadly hemorrhagic fever has emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the past five weeks, with more than 60 people already dead, and the number of people who have become ill is still rising. Although it causes a violent, fast cascade of symptoms, including vomiting blood, it is not Ebola or Marburg, but it appears to be an unknown disease. A USAID worker who spoke on condition of anonymity told Wired: “We have no one on the ground to monitor it.”
Update 2/27/25 6:21 ET: This story has been updated with comments from the CDC.