Former USAID official on agency merger, funding cutbacks: "It's not an overhaul. It's a destruction"
CBSN
Former USAID Global Health director Dr. Atul Gawande criticized the Trump administration's plan to merge the United States Agency for International Development into the State Department and the funding freezes that are putting key aid programs in jeopardy, saying the decisions aren't an "overhaul" but rather a "destruction."
Gawande, a surgeon and medical professor, told CBS News on Monday that the "destruction" began a week ago after the White House Office of Management and Budget released a memo that ordered a freeze on federal assistance. The memo was walked back days later and the ordered freeze has been halted by a federal court, but some programs appear to still be in limbo.
"You're talking about 20 million people in the global HIV program, that has reduced HIV around the world, they are going without medication that keeps them alive, Gawande said. "You're talking about disease outbreaks that are not being stopped, like bird flu, where monitoring has been turned off in 40 countries."
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