Protesters rally in support of USAID as Trump administration shuts it down
Protesters rally in support of USAID as Trump administration shuts it down
As of Friday, the second Trump administration is putting almost all employees of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, on leave. Opponents of the move held a rally on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
There, USAID supporters at the rally held signs, saying things like “USAID Saves Lives” and “Save USAID.” They chanted, heard speeches from members of Congress and worried about USAID’s unfinished work.
The skeleton crew left at USAID isn’t funding even the humanitarian aid Secretary of State Marco Rubio exempted from the Trump administration’s freeze, according to Atul Gawande, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health in the Biden administration.
Gawande only knows of one aid project that’s actually been funded — to help stem an Ebola outbreak in Uganda. But he said staff on the ground aren’t allowed to talk to the World Health Organization, which is coordinating the effort.
“And that is preventing a full response to an Ebola outbreak that has now exposed more than 250 people in Uganda,” Gawande said.
It’s not just Ebola. “We have dengue fever happening, we have mpox happening,” said Stéphie-Anne Dulièpre, a contract worker at USAID who was furloughed about 10 days ago. “We are in a slurry of multi-infectious disease outbreaks around our globe.”
The big concern is that people who aren’t getting treatment for those diseases, per Angie Garvey, another USAID contractor who was also let go last week.
“People are going to die — people are already dying,” she said. “Lifesaving work is done at USAID.”
Garvey added that COVID-19 taught us that diseases don’t respect borders. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
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