USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts • Hacker News Board

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#51

Post by sharemywin » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #17

Hasu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk to any Canadian and tell me that trust in the US as an ally hasn't been irreparably damaged. Global geopolitics are complicated . It's true on some level that no one trusts anyone else, but relative levels of trust still matter. There aren't many superpowers out there, if the US is seen as unreliable, China and the EU can step in and replace US influence. This has been happening in Africa for a couple decades or…

>Talk to any Canadian and tell me that trust in the US as an ally hasn't been irreparably damaged. Firstly, I have no sympathy here. If you trust any foreign government that's not accountable to you to begin with, that's on you. The upshot is that this serves as a good lesson and wake-up call for Canadians and for us in EU as well that we need to start pulling our weight in the world and looking out for our own inter…

got 2 words nuclear proliferation.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#52

Post by EA-3167 » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

sharemywin wrote: post #42

EA-3167 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been interesting seeing Western European NGO's struggle to find funding without USAID as well. I don't like Trump, I don't like much of what he's doing, but this at least has been a bit of a wake-up call for me. While the US is rich and should provide what it can, the degree to which the rest of the world (and the rest of the West) has clearly just shrugged and let us carry them is... interesting.

while it makes perfect sense in a democracy to argue about funding levels or even if the program should exist and make your voice hear through your representatives. Turning it off without any planning like its the back up server for a social media company is irresponsible and will cause people to die.

Of course, what we're seeing is careless and foolish, I'm not endorsing any of it. I am however somewhat enlightened by the consequences of that foolish endeavor.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#53

Post by BobaFloutist » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

yibg wrote: post #9

andy_ppp wrote: post #2

I don’t understand what bubble Elon Musk is living in where the ruthless slashing of USAID spending won’t have huge negative repercussions for the US. I think the rest of the world will withdraw from trusting the US after this and other actions. A lot of trust in the world leadership positions the US takes are being torched by these vandals right now and while I hope for an amazing US comeback in 4 years it looks a l…

Seems to be consistent with Musk's MO. Cut first then (maybe) measure.

Cut twice, measure once?

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#54

Post by jjtheblunt » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

Red_Tarsius wrote: post #27

redleader55 wrote: post #18

Why is the US contribution so critical to anything outside the US when there so many other rich countries that could pick up the slack? Does this mean that besides US no one else cares? I can't believe that's true.

Because the US is the de-facto leader of the Free World, the wealthiest country in the Western hemisphere and the winner of the Cold War. Heavy Lies the Crown. Especially when it's about fighting the deadliest infectious disease known to man.

> the deadliest infectious disease known to man

where did you get that?

it seems like Ebola Zaire, Marburg, and sundry other diseases are saying "hold my beer".

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#55

Post by sharemywin » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

diob wrote: post #11

andy_ppp wrote: post #2

I don’t understand what bubble Elon Musk is living in where the ruthless slashing of USAID spending won’t have huge negative repercussions for the US. I think the rest of the world will withdraw from trusting the US after this and other actions. A lot of trust in the world leadership positions the US takes are being torched by these vandals right now and while I hope for an amazing US comeback in 4 years it looks a l…

There's always money to be made from things failing or instability unfortunately. There's a reason they want to cause the economy to crash.

crypto. and network states. curtis yarvin.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#56

Post by ModernMech » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:44 PM UTC

throwway120385 wrote: post #34

redleader55 wrote: post #18

Why is the US contribution so critical to anything outside the US when there so many other rich countries that could pick up the slack? Does this mean that besides US no one else cares? I can't believe that's true.

Because we get a lot of travelers through our country who may otherwise spread TB here if we made no effort to control it outside of the country, and it would be a huge public health problem for us despite the fact that treatment for it is readily available in our country. If we're going to do this we should probably institute some kind of health screening during the immigration process at entry points.

It's the same rationale we used for the Iraq War - fight the terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here. People understand that intuitively. But when it's framed as helping people, there's a big question mark as to the utility.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#57

Post by sharemywin » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:44 PM UTC

EA-3167 wrote: post #25

lasc4r wrote: post #21

I think the goal is to destroy US soft power on the way to undermining the rule of law and destroying what passes for a rules-based international order. Once that's done they can really get busy stamping out democracy.

I don't think USAID is the core of US soft power, Hollywood is. Our tech industry is. Our food and our language and the way our culture seeps into everything is. If USAID and aid to places in much of Africa was our soft power, I'd expect to see a lot less pivoting to China and Russia in those places. On that note, perhaps the countries that decided to invite Wagner or enter the Chinese BRI can ask their new friends f…

maybe they can house some nuke bases there too.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#58

Post by jweir » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:44 PM UTC

redleader55 wrote: post #18

Why is the US contribution so critical to anything outside the US when there so many other rich countries that could pick up the slack? Does this mean that besides US no one else cares? I can't believe that's true.

Leadership. You are not a leader if you ask why should we when they can.

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#59

Post by jjtheblunt » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:44 PM UTC

inverted_flag wrote: post #28

That USAID was Trump and Musk's first target after taking office is peculiar. They made no mention of it during the campaign and most people were unaware of it's existence until a couple weeks ago. The only group with any strong negative opinion of USAID is foreign adversaries.

> The only group with any strong negative opinion of USAID is foreign adversaries.

What about American taxpayers of the "maga" persuasion?

Re: USAID funding freeze disrupts global tuberculosis control efforts

#60

Post by mplanchard » Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 6:45 PM UTC

perihelions wrote: post #46

Red_Tarsius wrote: post #19

For context: Tuberculosis treatment requires strict, months-long medication adherence. Even a brief disruption means patients may not complete their courses, allowing drug-resistant TB to emerge. These strains are far harder and more expensive to treat, spreading across borders and undoing decades of progress.

The brief (?) interruption to PEPFAR (Bush's HIV/AIDS aid program) has major impacts too. One of the plainest ones is that infants with HIV can, if anti-retrovirals are paused, die more or less right away. - "In children who acquired H.I.V. at birth, the infection can progress very quickly to illness, with death occurring as early as eight to 12 weeks after birth — shorter than the 90-day pause on foreign aid." https…

This article by Scott Alexander (Money Saved By Canceling Programs Does Not Immediately Flow To The Best Possible Alternative) talks a fair bit about how effective this program is: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/money-saved-by-canceling-pr...

It also makes the point that, under some reasonable assumptions, you could assume that any domestic program you could theoretically redirect the funding to would likely be ~100x less effective than PEPFAR, which is an abnormally effective aid program.