Atul Gawande
@agawande.bsky.social
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Surgeon, Writer ("Being Mortal," "Checklist Manifesto"), and formerly led Global Health @USAID.
My sister, Meeta, and I are heartbroken to report that our beloved mom, Sushila Goswami Gawande, a joyful force of nature and a pediatrician for three decades in Athens, Ohio, died on December 17. We will miss her dearly. Her obit describing her remarkable life:
www.legacy.com/legacy/sushi...
13 days ago
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Read to the end. NPR asked why the Trump team ended a low-cost program that cured millions of tropical diseases w drugs donated by pharma. The spokesperson replied with an NPR headline—“Farewell to USAID”—and said: “What do you think farewell meant?”
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
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The fight to beat neglected tropical diseases was going well. 2025 could change that
The campaign to prevent and treat these diseases has seen great success thanks to a USAID program. Now that program is gone.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/12/10/g-s1-101411/neglected-tropical-diseases-usaid-cuts
25 days ago
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My wife, Kathleen: “In the future, we will just be data. We will be just ones and zeroes. But I will be a one. Not a zero.”
about 1 month ago
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This is your must read this week. Read this. It is about leukemia and the powers and limits of science and the terrifying dangers of the turn against it. It is human and excoriating and beautiful.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
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A Battle with My Blood
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-battle-with-my-blood
about 1 month ago
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The CDC website has been lobotomized. Where it once presented the decades of evidence debunking the false claims of a link between vaccines and autism, that has now been replaced with junk science.
about 2 months ago
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I spoke with @BigThink about why even the most experienced professionals need a coach — including surgeons. It’s one of the most under-utilized ways people improve. Video:
youtu.be/tW7ClAexgHI?...
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How to break the hidden limits of expertise | Atul Gawande for Big Think+
YouTube video by Big Think
https://youtu.be/tW7ClAexgHI?si=ZPr9B-OSF6xlB15d
about 2 months ago
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I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
2 months ago
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Today @TheNewYorker released our short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” online. It traces the ongoing effects of the sudden shutdown of US foreign aid through the story of one mother in Kenya as she seeks to save her daughter from sickness and starvation. 🎥 1/
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
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The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-shutdown-of-usaid-has-already-killed-hundreds-of-thousands
2 months ago
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I watched the 1st meeting day of RFK Jr’s handpicked committee of vaccine advisors. It was utterly depressing. 1/
4 months ago
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9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
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Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/opinion/cdc-leaders-kennedy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ik8.2JQu.qplPe_508KkD&smid=url-share
4 months ago
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#freedc
I returned from the wedding of our daughter to find the city where I have lived for the last 3 years in the midst of a military takeover. The military policing Americans. This is happening. It is a danger for everyone in our country. Now is the moment to turn out in protest.
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5 months ago
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Excellent read from
@danielleofri.bsky.social
on the reality for clinicians as NIH, CDC, FDA recs are put under political controls: “Medical professionals can no longer fully trust federal health guidance, and our patients are the ones who will suffer the most.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...
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Opinion | Doctors Have Lost Their Mount Olympus of Medicine
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/opinion/doctors-government-agencies.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Z08.d40p.w2acJ2lYW8up&smid=url-share
5 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Philip Gourevitch
5 months ago
truly
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...
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Opinion | José Andrés: People of Good Conscience Must Stop the Starvation in Gaza
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/opinion/gaza-starvation-famine-israel.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
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They came for the foreign aid workers, justice department, public health institutions, universities and researchers, law firms, media organizations, not to mention longtime immigrants. Now it is nonprofits too.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...
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Opinion | You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time. But You Could Be Next.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/opinion/trump-executive-order.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.76jc.FohCougDnQQC&smid=url-share
5 months ago
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STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
6 months ago
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"The anti‑vax movement, once seen as confined to the U.S., is now spreading globally." An excellent, if sobering, piece from Rivka Galchen.
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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“Foreign aid has changed nothing.” “These are not our problems.” “The system is dysfunctional.” “The countries we aid are corrupt.” “Other countries aren’t doing enough.” I have heard all these arguments too.
@nickkristof.bsky.social
succinctly answers.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/o...
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Opinion | The U.S. Cannot Solve All the World’s Problems
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/opinion/american-aid-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SE8.z0qj.mYWjbf19UdQg&smid=url-share
6 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Stephanie Nolen
6 months ago
This was supposed to be a breakthrough year in the 44-year-long struggle against H.I.V. It's turned into something very different.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/h...
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Promise of Victory Over H.I.V. Fades as U.S. Withdraws Support
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/health/hiv-lenacapavir-vaccine-trump-cuts-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Rk8.AeJ8.FqxxyDtdsSeX&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
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This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of
@gavi.org
. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
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RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort
Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/25/rfk-vaccine-donations-gavi-00422705
6 months ago
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This twice-yearly shot almost completely prevents HIV and is now approved. It could shut down HIV. It needs to roll out in at risk groups. But Trump has gutted HIV prevention at home and abroad. That could be stopped, however.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/h...
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Regulators Approve a Twice-Yearly Shot to Prevent H.I.V. Infection
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/health/hiv-fda-lenacapavir.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QE8.8WDW.QCXqyEc9P1XE&smid=url-share
7 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Apoorva Mandavilli
7 months ago
Americans Are Going to Die’ -- Why Dr. Fiona Havers, an influential vaccine researcher, left the CDC. The wholesale dismissal of the agency’s scientific advisers crossed the line, she said (Gift article)
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/h...
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Why a Vaccine Expert Left the C.D.C.: ‘Americans Are Going to Die’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/health/havers-cdc-vaccines-kennedy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P08._b0s._85c_rlLaOde&smid=url-share
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After Musk’s dismantling of USAID, deaths can be counted by the hundreds of thousands. “If there were justice in the world, Musk would never be able to repair his reputation, at least not without devoting the bulk of his fortune to easing the misery he’s engendered.“
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...
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Opinion | Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/opinion/elon-musk-doge-usaid.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LE8.xffw.76x8k3O4QpZT&smid=url-share
7 months ago
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“No children are dying on my watch,” said Rubio. It's blatantly false. Credible estimates count 190K deaths so far. In Kenya, I am seeing devastating impact, incl this child's starvation & many deaths directly caused by Rubio’s actions. More in my
@msnbc.com
clip.
www.instagram.com/atul.gawande...
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Atul Gawande on Instagram: "“No children are dying on my watch,” said Rubio. It's blatantly false. So far, 190,000 children and 90,000 adults have died due to the dismantling of USAID (even assuming...
9 likes, 0 comments - atul.gawande on May 24, 2025: "“No children are dying on my watch,” said Rubio. It's blatantly false. So far, 190,000 children and 90,000 adults have died due to the dismantlin...
https://www.instagram.com/atul.gawande/reel/DKDRJaQuFJG/
8 months ago
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“What I do know is that my colleagues, many…like me, foreign scientists, are terrified of being detained or having their visa status revoked.” It’s 3 months since ICE put Kseniia Petrova in detention for a customs violation normally handled with a fine.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...
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Opinion | I Came to Study Aging. Now I’m Trapped in ICE Detention.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/opinion/ice-detention-russian-scientist.html?unlocked_article_code=1.G08.392D.YYU3Xi6lXrJd&smid=url-share
8 months ago
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Read the actual
#math
on DOGE cuts from Jessica Reidl. Musk claims $165B in savings are vastly overstated. And the cuts to IRS & loan recovery staff will produce 100s of billions in net loss of revenues. Net: Costs up. Lives lost. Country harmed.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/05/musk-doge-
8 months ago
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MCC is small but backs key infrastructure development in developing countries — such as power grids, ports, and access to critical minerals.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/u...
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DOGE to Dismantle Millennium Challenge Corporation (Gift Article)
Millennium Challenge Corporation staff members were offered early retirement or deferred resignation in the latest effort by the Trump administration to gut the foreign aid apparatus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/trump-doge-millennium-challenge-corporation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CU8.nqXJ.AA0BRjXCDeGR&smid=url-share
9 months ago
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Yet another example of the gutting of key parts of HHS.
add a skeleton here at some point
9 months ago
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I saw firsthand the impact of stop-work-orders/terminations at USAID & now Harvard. My new @NewYorker piece is on the serious implications for the lives of millions across the world and the US – including for my own family and very possibly your own. 🧵
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
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The Cost of Defunding Harvard
If you or someone you love has cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or diabetes, you have likely benefitted from the university’s federally funded discoveries in care and tre...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-cost-of-defunding-harvard
9 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Anne Zink
9 months ago
1/3 During my training, I never saw measles, Haemophilus influenzae b, or syphilis—because effective public health strategies had nearly eliminated these threats. But what I once took for granted, those public health victories, are sliding backward
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Alt USAID/ USAID Forever
9 months ago
Friends and former USAID global public health professionals have launched an emergency campaign to support high-impact local HIV organizations with stop gap funding. Please consider supporting to directly help them continue HIV services in the near term while they plan for the future. 🧵1
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A Crisis in Care: Urgent Funding Needed to Sustain Lifesaving HIV Services - GlobalGiving
The abrupt termination of USAID-supported HIV programs has created a devastating crisis for vulnerable communities, leaving children, families, and at-risk populations without essential services. Thes...
https://www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/a-crisis-in-care-urgent-funding-needed-to-sustain-lifes/
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USA led the world in expertise stopping HIV, incl preventing mother to child transmission. But DOGE has now dismissed every global prevention expert at USAID, CDC, & State Dept. The risk is insane: Resurgent HIV & 500K child deaths by 2030.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/h...
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Who Will Care for Infants With H.I.V. Overseas? (Gift Article)
The consequences of mother-to-child transmission can be enormous, a new study suggests. But the U.S. has dismissed experts working to solve the problem.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/health/cdc-hiv-mothers.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-E4.bfnF.nyoSapXByxRO&smid=url-share
9 months ago
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.@SenBooker's marathon effort moved me more than I could explain. And this piece from @Dahlialithwick beautifully articulates what I couldn't.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
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Five Things Cory Booker Taught Me This Week
The thing Booker modeled above all is that we each have something at which we excel, and that now is a good time to step up and try to do it.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/politics-democrats-analysis-cory-booker-filibuster-lessons.html
9 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Benjamin Wittes
9 months ago
On Friday, the Trump admin announced it was shuttering USAID by the end of the fiscal year.
@nkorpett.bsky.social
spoke to
@agawande.bsky.social
about why USAID matters and the consequences of destroying it. Watch their conversation here or wherever you get your podcasts:
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Lawfare Daily: Why Public Health is Critical to National Security
YouTube video by Lawfare
https://youtu.be/wcxksLqS_sM
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State Dept gave Congress its full list of 5,300+ USAID program terminations. The sweeping cuts for health alone - from global childhood vaccines to surveillance for deadly diseases to malaria work - entail massive loss of life & national security risk.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/h...
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U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries but Continue Some H.I.V. and TB Aid (Gift Article)
A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by The Times lists the Trump administration’s plans for thousands of foreign aid programs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/usaid-cuts-gavi-bird-flu.html?unlocked_article_code=1.604.PDew.MwQnP7OB_832&smid=url-share
10 months ago
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It’s the world’s most deadly infectious disease. But it strikes the world’s most downtrodden and neglected, including here at home. So we turn our eyes. Not you,
@johngreensbluesky.bsky.social
. You’ve made the story of TB personal. And your vivid, moving, vital book makes us grateful you did.
add a skeleton here at some point
10 months ago
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What happens when you do surgery with a chainsaw
www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-...
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Hundreds of Thousands Will Die
The writer, surgeon, and former U.S.A.I.D. administrator Atul Gawande on the Trump Administration’s decimation of foreign aid and the consequences around the world.
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/atul-gawande-on-elon-musks-surgery-with-a-chainsaw
10 months ago
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Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world. Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
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Contribution of vaccination to improved survival and health: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization
Since 1974 substantial gains in childhood survival have occurred in every global region. We estimate that EPI has provided the single greatest contribution to improved infant survival over the past 50...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00850-X/fulltext
10 months ago
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This is a huge victory against arbitrary, unchecked power -- and a key step toward restoring at least some of USAID's vital work to save lives and to advance freedom and American security.
add a skeleton here at some point
10 months ago
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Even before Zelensky’s visit, Sec. Rubio had terminated vital USAID support to sustain Ukraine’s energy grid. “The USAID initiative had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in helping Ukraine's energy grid recover from attacks from Russia.”
www.nbcnews.com/politics/sta...
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State Department terminates U.S. support of Ukraine energy grid restoration
The USAID initiative had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in helping Ukraine's energy grid recover from attacks from Russia.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/state-department-terminates-us-support-ukraine-energy-grid-restoration-rcna194259
10 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Mark Cuban
10 months ago
Ready Fire Aim is a lousy way to govern.
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Thousands of fired USAID employees were given 15 minutes today to clear out their personal belongings from headquarters.
10 months ago
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Rubio terminated 5800 USAID contracts – more than 90% of its foreign aid programs – in defiance of the courts. Here’s a list of just some of the lifesaving awards that were terminated. Nearly all were Congressionally mandated. They’ve saved millions of lives. 🧵
10 months ago
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Invaluable thread about the damage to vaccine access and development from the Trump administration's step by step weakening of US health capacity.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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reposted by
Atul Gawande
Kyle Cheney
11 months ago
JUST IN: Another medical horror story in an affidavit from a USAID employee stationed overseas. Says his pregnant wife was not medevac-ed for emergency health care because of directives from DC. Took intervention of a U.S. senator to reverse — but was too late.
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
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I am in Cairo, where I have been visiting with health organizations, including WHO and other partners of USAID. Trump and Musk say lifesaving assistance is not affected by the shutdown of USAID and support to WHO. I can tell you that is 100% false.
#SaveAID
www.instagram.com/share/_ogGRd...
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Login • Instagram
Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
https://www.instagram.com/share/_ogGRd7UY
11 months ago
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“Speculation that the U.S. might eliminate its foreign aid program has been met with cheers from Beijing, to Moscow and Tehran.”
time.com/7221668/ted-...
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I Came to Congress to Gut Foreign Aid. I Was Wrong
Ten years ago, Congressman Ted Yoho came to Washington with a mission to cut foreign spending. Now, he explains why it was a mistake.
https://time.com/7221668/ted-yoho-gutting-usaid-mistake-essay/
11 months ago
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Trump’s sudden cutoff of funding and staff at USAID has meant the loss of “almost all ability to track $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid…, a government watchdog warned Monday.” This whole wire report on the accelerating catastrophe bears reading.
www.therepublic.com/2025/02/10/u...
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USAID watchdog warns of lack of oversight of $8.2 billion in unspent aid after Trump moves - The Republic News
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Agency for International Development has lost almost all ability to track $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid after the Trump admin...
https://www.therepublic.com/2025/02/10/usaid-watchdog-warns-of-lack-of-oversight-of-8-2-billion-in-unspent-aid-after-trump-moves/
11 months ago
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Elon Musk wants to strip out payments for the indirect costs of doing vital research for the federal govt — while SpaceX gets to keep its undisclosed indirect rate.
11 months ago
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From independent @USAID sources, >800 contracts and awards are being terminated en masse – with the procurement team subject to hourly checks on speed of executing terminations. The pace has exceeded the ability to confirm whether lifesaving assistance or any Congressional mandate is affected.
11 months ago
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Musk is rumored to spend $40M on Super Bowl ads with his wildly distorted claims attacking USAID. Don’t believe them. The last round are debunked below.
wapo.st/3ErHBZM
And I'll unpack the reality in this 🧵, too. 1/13
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Analysis | The White House’s wildly inaccurate claims about USAID spending
Eleven out of 12 claims about the agency’s work are misleading, wrong or lack context.
https://wapo.st/3ErHBZM
11 months ago
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