Elon Musk's decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been linked to the severity of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with experts stating that the cuts hindered surveillance and response efforts, leading to a 'significant numbers' of deaths.
Background of the Cuts
Last year, Musk, through the short-lived US 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), cut Ebola detection and response programs, which he later admitted was done 'accidentally.' These cuts have come under renewed scrutiny as the DRC grapples with an Ebola outbreak. Jeremy Konyndyk, a former top USAID official who oversaw the agency's Ebola response in 2014-2015 and now president of Refugees International, said, 'Elon's USAID crash-out over the past week has been a thing to behold. In a way, it's helpful that Elon is doing this, because it's putting attention back on the issue of what he did last year.'
Impact on Ebola Response
Davide Rasella, a research professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies and head of the Global Health Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain, said, 'This is one of the reasons why there was not enough surveillance and preparedness for the outbreak of Ebola.' Konyndyk added that if global health programs hadn't been slashed, the Ebola outbreak would have been detected much earlier. 'I'm very confident about that,' he said.
Musk's Denials and Threats
Musk has denied that his cuts caused any deaths, saying his critics 'cannot cite a single name of someone who died' and 'If there were, it would be worldwide headline news!' When confronted with names of children who died because of the cuts, Musk called a journalist 'an utter piece of shit and a liar' and 'utterly evil.' He has also claimed, without evidence, that US tax dollars went to arming militants and 'corrupt politicians.'
Broader Consequences
The cuts have affected global health, nutrition, and education worldwide. A Lancet study estimated there would be 14 million deaths, including 4.5 million child deaths, if USAID were abolished entirely. When Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna cited the study, Musk threatened to sue. Rasella, one of the authors of the study, stood by the estimates, saying, 'Musk uses science for launching rockets. When we speak about public health and global health, we use the same statistical mathematical tools that we use to launch rockets into space.'
Scale of the Crisis
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people will die as a result of these cuts, said Rasella. 'But the important thing is the scale. There will probably be millions of deaths over the next several years. This is really unquestionable.' Some losses are already occurring. 'People are absolutely dying. They're dying in significant numbers in some places,' Konyndyk said.
Legacy and Responsibility
Konyndyk said Musk's demolition of USAID 'is going to be a defining part of his legacy, and I do wonder if that's why he's scrambling so hard to rewrite that history now.' He criticized Musk's approach: 'He took a model he used in his companies to cut until people scream, and then when people scream, you've cut too far, and then you restore. That's not how public funding works. Here the cost is literal human lives.'
Without Musk, USAID would probably still exist, Konyndyk said. Without him, the agency would have taken 'some huge hits' but would have survived in some form, like other health and science agencies. 'His personal investment in that project gave it the reach all the way up to the White House,' he added.
Call to Action
Congress could have stopped the dismantling of USAID – and it still could, Konyndyk said. USAID is required to exist by law, and what few aid programs still operate have been choked by the slow release of funding from the state department. After the Covid pandemic caused about 20 million deaths globally, it was 'absurd' to cut programs that would prevent and prepare for the next pandemic, Rasella said. 'When you disrupt a single piece of that [aid], you can really create more and larger damage to the entire system. This is just the beginning.' But there's still time to act, Konyndyk said. 'We have a window here to try and bring some of this back before the worst of the harms set in.'
