Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

"here in West Africa, the heavy metal doors of a warehouse creak open. Inside are boxes piled high with millions of doses of medicines donated by Merck and other pharmaceutical companies for a #UnitedStates aid program. Yet the medications are gathering dust, and some are approaching their expiration dates and may have to be destroyed, at immense expense.

this waste of drugs exists only because [Trump's] administration shut down #USAID"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Trump#USPol #News#World#USA
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

"Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million #children & adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines... would rid more than 2 million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis"

#Musk #News#Health

Text from article: It’s an excellent example of the waste that President Trump claims was rife in the United States Agency for International Development. (“Absolutely obscene,” as he put it in February.) But this waste of drugs exists only because his administration shut down U.S.A.I.D. and canceled plans to distribute these medicines, even though the pills cost America nothing and are ready to use. Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million children and adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines in the warehouse would rid more than two million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis that causes pain, weakness and bloody urine. These medicines also have the side benefit of protecting against worms that cause elephantiasis, a disfiguring and humiliating ailment. “People come to ask for these drugs,” Tamba Koroma, the warehouse’s watchman, told me. “We tell them we can’t distribute them.”
Text from article: It’s an excellent example of the waste that President Trump claims was rife in the United States Agency for International Development. (“Absolutely obscene,” as he put it in February.) But this waste of drugs exists only because his administration shut down U.S.A.I.D. and canceled plans to distribute these medicines, even though the pills cost America nothing and are ready to use. Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million children and adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines in the warehouse would rid more than two million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis that causes pain, weakness and bloody urine. These medicines also have the side benefit of protecting against worms that cause elephantiasis, a disfiguring and humiliating ailment. “People come to ask for these drugs,” Tamba Koroma, the warehouse’s watchman, told me. “We tell them we can’t distribute them.”
Text from article: It’s an excellent example of the waste that President Trump claims was rife in the United States Agency for International Development. (“Absolutely obscene,” as he put it in February.) But this waste of drugs exists only because his administration shut down U.S.A.I.D. and canceled plans to distribute these medicines, even though the pills cost America nothing and are ready to use. Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million children and adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines in the warehouse would rid more than two million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis that causes pain, weakness and bloody urine. These medicines also have the side benefit of protecting against worms that cause elephantiasis, a disfiguring and humiliating ailment. “People come to ask for these drugs,” Tamba Koroma, the warehouse’s watchman, told me. “We tell them we can’t distribute them.”
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

"CHILDREN ARE DYING because medicines have been abruptly cut off, & risks of Ebola, tuberculosis & other diseases reaching #America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses.

After #ElonMusk boasted about feeding #USAID “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result...

Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing #children. Open your eyes."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Musk#Trump#USPol#Politics#Health#World

Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

"One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that #American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead #women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#ElonMusk#Musk #Doge#Trump#GOP#USPol#Politics#USAID#Health#Healthcare#World #News#US#USA

Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

"a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old.

Gbessey caught #malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria... But the closing of #USAID led to the collapse of some supply chains, so #health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey.

...The next day, Gbessey died.

“Our #children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Musk#Trump #News

Photo with caption from article: Photo: A woman holding a baby. Caption: Bendu Kiadu holds her newborn, Osman, who is sick with malaria. Her 1-year-old son, Gbessey, died when the local clinic ran out of malaria medicine. Credit: Saidu Bah for The New York Times
Photo with caption from article: Photo: A woman holding a baby. Caption: Bendu Kiadu holds her newborn, Osman, who is sick with malaria. Her 1-year-old son, Gbessey, died when the local clinic ran out of malaria medicine. Credit: Saidu Bah for The New York Times
Photo with caption from article: Photo: A woman holding a baby. Caption: Bendu Kiadu holds her newborn, Osman, who is sick with malaria. Her 1-year-old son, Gbessey, died when the local clinic ran out of malaria medicine. Credit: Saidu Bah for The New York Times
Text from article: Come also to the village of Vonzua in western Liberia, where a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old. Gbessey caught malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria, and the United States noted just last year that it provided “vital” and “critical” support to fight malaria in Liberia. But the closing of U.S.A.I.D. led to the collapse of some supply chains, so health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey. Kiadu rushed the child to a clinic, but it, too, had run out of malaria medicine. The next day, Gbessey died. Now Kiadu’s youngest child, Osman, is also seriously ill with malaria, and the community health workers and the clinic still have no malaria medicine. She worries that she will lose two of her children within months. “Our children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me.
Text from article: Come also to the village of Vonzua in western Liberia, where a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old. Gbessey caught malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria, and the United States noted just last year that it provided “vital” and “critical” support to fight malaria in Liberia. But the closing of U.S.A.I.D. led to the collapse of some supply chains, so health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey. Kiadu rushed the child to a clinic, but it, too, had run out of malaria medicine. The next day, Gbessey died. Now Kiadu’s youngest child, Osman, is also seriously ill with malaria, and the community health workers and the clinic still have no malaria medicine. She worries that she will lose two of her children within months. “Our children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me.
Text from article: Come also to the village of Vonzua in western Liberia, where a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old. Gbessey caught malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria, and the United States noted just last year that it provided “vital” and “critical” support to fight malaria in Liberia. But the closing of U.S.A.I.D. led to the collapse of some supply chains, so health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey. Kiadu rushed the child to a clinic, but it, too, had run out of malaria medicine. The next day, Gbessey died. Now Kiadu’s youngest child, Osman, is also seriously ill with malaria, and the community health workers and the clinic still have no malaria medicine. She worries that she will lose two of her children within months. “Our children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

"How often does this happen? The #Trump administration is also dismantling #data collection, making it difficult to count the deaths it is causing. By one American economist’s online dashboard, about 350,000 people worldwide have died so far because of cuts in #American aid. My guess is that the figure isn’t so high, partly because it takes time for #children to weaken and die, but that the rate of deaths will accelerate."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Musk#Trump#GOP#Politics #News#USA#US