The former Global Health Director of USAID, Dr. Atul Gawande, criticized the Trump administration plan to merge The United States Agency for International Development in the State Department and financing freeze the key aid programs, saying that decisions are not a “review” but rather a “destruction.”
Gawande, surgeon and medical teacher, told CBS News on Monday that “destruction” began a week ago after the White House Administration and Budget Office. He threw a memo That ordered a freezing about federal assistance. The Memo was return days later and the orderly freezing has been arrested by a federal courtBut some programs seem to be in limbo.
“You are talking about 20 million people in the Global HIV programThat has reduced HIV worldwide, they leave without medications that keep them alive, Gawande said. “You are talking about disease outbreaks that are not being stopped, Like bird fluwhere monitoring has been extinguished in 40 countries. “
“A lot of harm is being done, and this change to eliminate the independent state is just a nail in the coffin after a personnel purge that this may have decimated the agency,” Gawande said.
Gawande responded to President Trump and Multimillonario Elon MuskThe comments, which have criticized the agency, and Trump recently said that the USAID is “led by a lot of radical lunatics.”
“What we are talking about are disaster help workers. We are talking about health workers and people who are doing good and protect the United States worldwide,” Gawande said.
The Trump administration is expected to announce details in the next few days about the interruption of the USAIDA 60 -year organization that provides humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries. The agency provides humanitarian assistance abroad, particularly to countries that recover from disaster and try to escape poverty. In fiscal year 2023, USAID administered more than $ 40 billion in assignments, said the Congress Research Service, a figure that is less than 1% of the federal budget.
Gawande said that it is “dangerous for the country to denigrate” the agency, saying that it is the “largest civil operational capacity in the country to advance” the work of the United States abroad.
“We are talking about experience in the world class. For example, the malaria program. Two thirds have been fired and the closing of the activity includes one of the world experts in malaria. Make us stronger,” Gawande said.
“Each administration goes through a review that says they want to change the policy, you want to change some direction, but you do not tenca and demonstrate the institution in the process,” Gawande said. “There was no need to close all its functions, which is damaging people.”
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