The New Republic – Mark Leon Goldberg / February 3, 2025 The Death of USAID: These People Are out of Their Freaking Minds The world’s richest man and its most powerful one have killed the one government agency that does the most to support the world’s most vulnerable people. There will be consequences. Already, HIV patients have been turned away from clinics that provided antiretrovirals as part of the hugely successful PEPFAR program. This may potentially cause a surge in viral loads in people, causing a resurgence of AIDS and the proliferation of drug-resistant HIV. (While the administration did issue a waiver to ostensibly keep PEPFAR going, those implementers that are still operational are nonetheless wary and apparently scaling back their services.)
WIRED – Kate Knibbs Business Feb 3, 2025 8:59 PM Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Still Blocking HIV/AIDS Relief Exempted From Foreign Aid Cuts The Trump Administration claims it is allowing “lifesaving” foreign aid to continue, but in reality, DOGE is preventing vital work on HIV and AIDS from saving lives. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk said on social media Sunday. “Could [sic] gone to some great parties. Did that instead.” One popular program implemented by USAID, however, has already been granted an “emergency humanitarian waiver” to keep operating: the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. The global health program, which was founded by former US president George W. Bush and is overseen by the State Department, has saved an estimated 26 million lives since its launch in 2003. It’s implemented by a handful of government agencies, including USAID. While in theory the Trump administration’s waiver allows the program to resume some of its activities while the foreign aid freeze is still in effect, in reality, sources tell WIRED that much of its lifesaving work remains paused. “Your money is being unfrozen but you can’t contact the people who actually froze it,” a senior official at an HIV/AIDS organization told WIRED.
These eugenicists believe in some kind of a natural order, and so they see medicine, especially preventions for infectious diseases, as interfering in the “rightful” order of things.
The New Republic – MAGA Melts Down Over Conspiracy That USAID Secretly Funds News Media – The far right has a berserk conspiracy theory over people in government paying for news subscriptions. Hafiz Rashid / February 5, 2025/4:37 p.m. ET However, in reality, that money appears to come from Politico Pro subscriptions, which are targeted at business executives, lobbyists, and government workers, and cost more than $10,000 each. It also was the total amount of money from all government agencies, not just USAID. The service tracks legislation, votes, and lawsuits, and includes niche reporting and analysis about news from within the federal government. Right-wing commentators then found what they claimed was evidence that USAID funneled money to the Associated Press, although much of that is due to syndication agreements between the AP and government media outlets such as Voice of America.
I don’t take any deep dives into Elon Musk’s discourse because I have better things to do with my life than expose myself to too much of that, but just judging by the Elon Musk’s family history I would not be surprised if he believes vaccinating Black Africans was some kind of an attack upon him and his white family.