The only thing worse than the painful death of a child is the easily preventable painful death of a child.
Already, as a result of the Trump administration’s attack on the public health community, which includes defunding the U.S. Agency for International Development and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, many children are dying unnecessarily.
According to the New York Times, this may result in 1.2 million children dying and 75 million not receiving routine vaccinations over the next five years.
In a memo leaked to the Times, a USAID insider projected that the defunding would likely cause:
- rising maternal and child mortality in 48 countries;
- up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year (166,000 additional deaths);
- hundreds of millions of polio infections (200,000 children paralyzed), just when we are close to eradicating this disease;
- 1 million children to be untreated for severe acute, often fatal, malnutrition each year;
- 28,000 new cases of Ebola and Marburg annually, increasing healthcare spending (in a 2014 case, one Ebola patient cost New York’s Health Department $4.3 million);
- increased cost from treating patients with multidrug-resistant TB (treating one patient costs more than $154,000, and there will be a 30 percent increase in drug-resistant TB); and
- uncontrolled outbreaks of Mpox and bird flu, perhaps 105 million cases in the U.S. alone.
The “savings” from cutting USAID funding quickly turns into excessive spending on preventable conditions. Even more costly is the loss of soft power, which enhances U.S. security around the world.
This thoughtless cost-cutting is not only immoral and needlessly cruel, but it is extremely bad business as well. For example, a study showed that for every dollar spent on USAID agriculture research, the U.S. earned a return of $8.52 in new jobs, exports, and further economic growth.
Defunding USAID is not the only case of recent penny-wise, pound-foolish U.S. government actions with deeply serious consequences for public health. After withdrawing from the World Health Organization, we have no say in where and how the organization directs its vital resources, while cutting ourselves off from WHO’s critical early warning intelligence on potential epidemics and other health dangers.
Likewise, in cutting funding for Gavi, which has saved the lives of 19 million children, we are raising the eventual budget burden while increasing human suffering. Additionally, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. canceled the Food and Drug Administration meeting to update next year’s flu vaccine. This may presage a less effective flu shot for the fall 2025 flu season.
The White House also scrapped its Office of Emergency Preparedness. The government is slashing the Centers for Disease Control staff, cutting its HIV and other critical research programs and prohibiting it from
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