Thread by @Atul_Gawande

I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:🧵

1. Stops work battling a deadly Marburg outbreak in Tanzania and a wide outbreak of a mpox variant killing children in west Africa before it spreads further.

2. Stops monitoring of bird flu in 49 countries, a disease which already killed an American on home soil.

3. Stops critical work to eradicate polio.

4. Stops >$1B in corporate drug donations and coordination eradicating tropical diseases like river blindness, elephantiasis, and others on the verge of elimination in whole regions. neglecteddiseases.gov/about/results-…

5. Stops medicines, supplies, systems building, staff support aiding >90 million women and children to get low cost vaccinations, prenatal care, safe childbirth, contraception, and other basic lifesaving health needs. usaid.gov/PreventingChil…

6. Stops direct services for 6.5 million orphans, vulnerable children, and their caregivers affected by HIV in 23 countries.

7. Stops donated drug supplies keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive.

8. Would furlough all USAID contract staff — which includes half of its global health bureau—unless exempted.

This Administration is trashing US standing, alliances with scores of countries built over half a century, world-leading capacity and expertise, and American security.

Make no mistake — these essential, lifesaving activities are being halted right now. Consequences aren’t in some distant future. They are immediate.