Opinion | Its America That Suffers When We Cut Foreign Aid

President Trump and Elon Musk were entirely right that America’s aid programs merited scrutiny and reform.Yet so far what these two billionaires have achieved is to crush the world’s poorest children in a cauldron of confusion and cruelty.Having covered the United States Agency for International Development for decades, I reached out to my contacts around the world to get the real story of the Trump-Musk demolition.In Sokoto, Nigeria, toddlers are starving because emergency feeding centers supported by U.S.A.I.D.

have run out of the nutrient-rich paste used to save the lives of severely malnourished children.Nearby warehouses have the paste but can’t release it without a waiver from the agency — which is in such Muskian chaos that it can’t issue the waivers.“Thousands of children can die,” said Erin Boyd, a former U.S.A.I.D.

nutrition adviser who told me about the situation there.An Ebola outbreak in Uganda has spread to three cities.The Ugandan government has pleaded with medical staff members previously paid by U.S.A.I.D.

to “continue working in the spirit of patriotism as volunteers.”A doctor on the scene told me that with U.S.A.I.D.absent, there is a greater risk that Ebola will spread — and maybe even infect Americans.

It’s a reminder that a robust U.S.A.I.D.is a first defense against epidemics and pandemics, whether involving bird flu, Ebola or other diseases.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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