Key Takeaways:
- Elon Musk claimed his team quickly fixed an accidental cut to Ebola prevention funds.
- USAID officials say the funding and programs are still gutted.
- disease prevention efforts have been severely weakened.
- experts warn of a lack of preparedness for future outbreaks.
Musk’s Claim at Trump’s Cabinet Meeting
Elon Musk, the billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX, recently made headlines during the first cabinet meeting of Donald Trump’s new administration. Musk admitted that his Department of Government Efficiency team accidentally cut funding for Ebola prevention to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He assured everyone that the mistake was fixed quickly.
“So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola prevention,” Musk said. “I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored the Ebola prevention immediately.”
But officials from USAID disagree with Musk’s claim.
USAID Officials Dispute Musk’s Statement
Current and former USAID officials told The Washington Post that Ebola prevention programs have not been restored. Instead, they say these programs have been severely weakened.
“We have made no efforts to ‘turn on’ anything in prevention” of Ebola and other diseases, said Nidhi Bouri, who used to oversee USAID’s health emergency responses. “The full spectrum — the investments in disease surveillance, the investments in what we mobilize … moving commodities, supporting lab workers — that capacity is now a tenth of what it was.”
Another current official added, “There was a waiver for Ebola, but USAID funds have never been back online. USAID has been frozen: staff and money.”
Impact on Global Health Efforts
Beth Cameron, a pandemic expert at Brown University, called the Trump administration’s recent actions “a double whammy” for global health efforts. She explained that USAID’s critical role in stopping outbreaks abroad has been frozen or gutted.
A former USAID official expressed fears about the lack of readiness to handle future outbreaks. “If there was a need to respond to Ebola, it would be a disaster assistance response team, or DART,” they said. “There is no longer a capability to send a DART or support one from Washington. Many of those people are contractors who were let go at the very beginning.”
What This Means for the Future
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency promised to fix mistakes quickly. But according to USAID officials, the damage to global health efforts has already been done. With disease prevention programs severely weakened, experts fear the U.S. is less prepared to handle outbreaks like Ebola in the future.
This situation raises questions about how effective Musk’s initiative has been in improving government efficiency. While Musk’s team may have fixed some mistakes, the bigger issue of gutted programs and lost capabilities remains unresolved.