Kristof: Musk Is Wrong, People Are Already Dying

Elon Musk has insisted that nobody has died as the result of slashed US foreign aid. "That is not true," writes columnist Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. "In South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, the efforts by Musk and President Trump are already leading children to die." Kristof traveled through the African nation and writes of multiple examples to refute Musk's assertion. One is 10-year-old Peter Donde, who was infected with HIV by his mother and kept alive with drugs delivered through the now-gutted PEPFAR and USAID programs. Without the drugs, the boy died of a pneumonia infection. "If USAID would be here, Peter Donde would not have died," a health outreach worker tells Kristof, who warns things are about to get worse.

"On a nine-day trip through East African villages and slums I heard that refrain repeatedly: While some are already dying because of the decisions in Washington, the toll is likely to soar in the coming months as stockpiles of medicines and food are drawn down and as people become weaker and sicker." Working with the Center for Global Development, Kristof ticks off estimates of deaths within a year under the cuts in various categories, including HIV prevention and treatment (341,000), food aid (186,000), malaria (290,000), and vaccines (500,000). (Read the full column, in which Kristof makes the case that such aid is in America's interest and is relatively inexpensive. It also reflects "the moral code we live by.")