One of Donald Trump's first vengeful acts in his second term as president was to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization. As we’ve all heard over the last week or so, the first government agency he and Elon Musk have sought to destroy is the U.S. Agency for International Development, better known as USAID. Both organizations are crucial for sustaining global public health. They save millions of lives every year, and doing significant work to prevent further collapse into global chaos.
Strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping praised the destruction of USAID, as did the leaders of Iran’s theocracy, motivated primarily by USAID’s work to promote democracy. In fact, democracy and public health are intimately related, as I’ve written before, and autocrats with severe personality disorders are particularly damaging to public health and human rights, as described in a 2019 paper by Dr. Frederick Burkle, who has worked with both WHO and USAID, at high levels and on the ground.
