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Elon Musk has claimed that Ebola prevention efforts have been 'restored' following major cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), while experts and officials have disputed these actions, alleging the opposite.
The newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk has been tearing through government spending in an effort to cut up to $2,000,000,000,000 from the federal budget by the end of next year.
They've already achieved around $105 billion in spending cuts - although this figure has been disputed by experts - with key departments like Health, Education, and Labor high on the chopping block, but none have quite been hit as hard as USAID.
USAID's purpose is to administer international humanitarian aid by utilizing America's position as a soft power, with one of it's key roles being the worldwide prevention of Ebola.
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Funding for this was cut by Musk and DOGE in the widespread USAID spending slash, yet the billionaire claims that this was 'accidental' and that it has been 'restored' once again, as reported by the Independent.
"We will make mistakes," outlined Musk in a statement regarding the 'accidental' cut. "We won't be perfect, but when we makes mistakes we'll fix it very quickly.
"I think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption."
While Musk's statement is certainly a positive one if you take it at face value, experts and key former USAID leads have heavily disputed what they claim to be simply 'window dressing'.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who previously led Ebola outbreak response at USAID, broke down in detail why Musk's claims aren't what they seem:
"This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC. What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically."
So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at @USAID.
— Jeremy Konyndyk is at jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social (@JeremyKonyndyk) February 26, 2025
This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC.
What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically. https://t.co/496aRBXYnM
Going further into detail, Konyndyk illustrates that in a normal situation the Ebola prevention program would involve 'rapid resource pushes' to partners and governments, 'robust interagency teams' deployed into affected fields, and 'real-time operational cooperation' with the World Health Organization, but instead outlines that this is simply not the case following DOGE cuts.
"Some limited resources have gone to partners," Konyndyk reveals, "but things that would normally move in hours or days took weeks this time."
Rounding off his scathing breakdown, he asserts that the bottom line is as follows:
Bottom line: Elon's vendetta against USAID and the federal workforce is shredding all of the systems that the USG has built up to protect the US homeland against global outbreak risks.
— Jeremy Konyndyk is at jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social (@JeremyKonyndyk) February 26, 2025
Scrambling to recall a few staff and issue some belated funding is just window dressing.
/end
"Elon's vendetta against USAID and the federal workforce is shredding all of the systems that the USG has built up to protect the US homeland against global outbreak risks.
"Scrambling to recall a few staff and issue some belated funding is just window dressing."
This is far from the only cuts of its kind though, as DOGE has proudly boasted about reducing the Inter-American Foundation to just a single employee - the legally required minimum - in an executive order-backed effort that aims to hit multiple aid-providing agencies.
