The CDC did not reply to requests for comment.
Other crucial USAID initiatives that were reportedly awarded humanitarian waivers are facing similar hurdles. Earlier this month, WIRED reported that the food aid and famine mitigation initiative FEWS NET is still inactive, despite receiving a waiver, as many of the workers involved in the project have been furloughed or laid off. This situation persists. “We have not yet been able to resume any activities,” says Payal Chandiramani, a spokesperson for Chemonics, the international firm handling a significant portion of the initiative.
Simultaneously, essential AIDS and HIV programs have also not resumed. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is one of USAID’s most notable successes, credited with saving over 26 million lives since its inception by former President George W. Bush in 2003. Around the same time Musk was making light of his USAID missteps with Trump officials, PEPFAR supporters held a protest in Washington, DC, to highlight the repercussions of losing these vital programs. Despite obtaining a waiver, PEPFAR has been unable to recommence its operations, alongside other halted AIDS-related initiatives, with funding and personnel reductions obstructing the program. “The waivers have not been effective,” remarks Emory Babcock, a former USAID contractor who worked on PEPFAR and was laid off at the beginning of DOGE’s budget cuts.
On the same day as Musk’s comments, the Trump administration terminated over 10,000 global health grants from USAID and the State Department, abruptly ending a variety of services that had been granted a lifesaving waiver.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, a nonprofit organization that commonly receives funding from USAID and collaborates with PEPFAR, received notification on Wednesday that three of its project agreements with USAID had been canceled, even though they had previously been approved to resume activities under the PEPFAR waiver. These programs support more than 350,000 patients in Lesotho, Eswatini, and Tanzania, including 10,000 children. “There’s nothing left,” says Russell. “The collateral damage is a mountain of bodies.”
Although a federal judge mandated the Trump administration to unfreeze foreign aid funds to temporarily settle outstanding bills and payments owed to contractors worldwide, the Supreme Court issued a stay on the order on Wednesday night, which means aid groups—including those focused on infectious disease prevention in Africa—continue to be unpaid for services rendered, hindering further lifesaving efforts.
Meanwhile, a new, lethal hemorrhagic fever has reportedly surfaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the past five weeks, claiming over 60 lives and with the number of those falling ill continuing to rise. While it triggers a violent, rapid onset of symptoms, including blood vomiting, it is neither Ebola nor Marburg, but appears to be an unidentified disease. A USAID worker who wished to remain anonymous stated to WIRED: “We have no one on the ground to monitor this situation.”
