{"id":2156,"date":"2026-07-08T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/08\/what-will-define-elon-musks-legacy-doge-cuts-to-usaid-ebola-programs\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:00:49","slug":"what-will-define-elon-musks-legacy-doge-cuts-to-usaid-ebola-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=2156","title":{"rendered":"What will define Elon Musk\u2019s legacy? Doge cuts to USAID Ebola programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"e9c93cb1-af1b-48e0-990d-617533d7c8b2\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"four people in protective clothing hold the lid of a casket\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3a43672fe2bc352143f4f1798468807b1fe55ece\/0_0_5820_3880\/master\/5820.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Staff carry a coffin for a victim of Ebola at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 26 June 2026.<\/span> Photograph: Dieudonne Dirole\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"e9c93cb1-af1b-48e0-990d-617533d7c8b2\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Staff carry a coffin for a victim of Ebola at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 26 June 2026.<\/span> Photograph: Dieudonne Dirole\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<div class=\"dcr-19hyiet\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1iguxsh\"><a href=\"\/tone\/analysis\" class=\"dcr-e5rynu\">Analysis<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">What will define Elon Musk\u2019s legacy? Doge cuts to USAID Ebola programs<\/h1>\n<div class=\"dcr-1ofjv3s\">\n<div class=\"dcr-ogy8bq\"><a rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/melody-schreiber\">Melody Schreiber<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1vosmfz\">\n<p>Experts say cuts have hindered the response to DRC\u2019s Ebola outbreak and resulted in \u2018significant numbers\u2019 of deaths<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Elon Musk has an Ebola problem. SpaceX stock dropped precipitously after its initial public offering, and Tesla faces a wave of lawsuits. But instead of focusing on his companies, Musk has posted frequently on X about the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which he helped dismantle \u2013 or, in his words, feed into the woodchipper \u2013 last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cElon\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/usaid\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">USAID<\/a> crash-out over the past week has been a thing to behold,\u201d said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former top USAID official who oversaw the agency\u2019s Ebola response in 2014-2015 and the president of Refugees International. \u201cIn a way, it\u2019s helpful that Elon is doing this, because it\u2019s putting attention back on the issue of what he did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2069159695319757288\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">has<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2071366974043537458\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">said<\/a> his critics \u201ccannot cite a single name of someone who died\u201d and \u201cIf there were, it would be worldwide headline news!\u201d When <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/01\/opinion\/usaid-elon-musk-doge.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">confronted<\/a> with the names \u2013 including those of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Atul_Gawande\/status\/2070205737104515401\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">children<\/a> who died because of the cuts \u2013 Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2071790233633321160\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">called<\/a> a journalist \u201can utter piece of shit and a liar\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2071792615658324114\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">utterly evil<\/a>\u201d. Musk has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2072087338789015618\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">claimed<\/a>, without evidence, that US tax dollars went to arming militants and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2069087335824699744\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">corrupt politicians<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Musk\u2019s cuts, through the short-lived US \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge), have come under renewed scrutiny during the Ebola outbreak in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/congo\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/a> (DRC). Last year, Musk admitted to \u201caccidentally\u201d cutting Ebola detection and response programs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThis is one of the reasons why there was not enough surveillance and preparedness for the outbreak of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ebola\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Ebola<\/a>,\u201d said Davide Rasella, a research professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies and head of the Global Health Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">If global health programs hadn\u2019t been slashed in the DRC and elsewhere, the Ebola outbreak would have been detected much earlier, Konyndyk said. \u201cI\u2019m very confident about that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The cuts have affected global health, nutrition and education around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">One Lancet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/article\/S0140-6736(25)01186-9\/fulltext\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">study<\/a> estimated there would be 14 million deaths, including 4.5 million child deaths, if USAID were abolished entirely. When Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California, cited the study, Musk threatened to sue, and he doubled down on his claims that Doge did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Rasella, one of the authors of the Lancet study, was unfamiliar with the Khanna-Musk conflict, but he stood by the estimates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Musk \u201cuses science for launching rockets\u201d, Rasella said. \u201cWhen we speak about public health and global health, we use the same statistical mathematical tools that we use to launch rockets into space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It\u2019s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many people will die as a result of these cuts, said Rasella.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cBut the important thing is the scale,\u201d he said. There will probably be millions of deaths over the next several years, he added. \u201cThis is really unquestionable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Some of these losses are already occurring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cPeople are absolutely dying. They\u2019re dying in significant numbers in some places,\u201d Konyndyk said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Musk\u2019s demolition of USAID, and the resulting suffering and death, \u201cis going to be a defining part of his legacy, and I do wonder if that\u2019s why he\u2019s scrambling so hard to rewrite that history now\u201d, Konyndyk said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Musk took a model he used in his companies to \u201ccut until people scream, and then when people scream, you\u2019ve cut too far, and then you restore\u201d, Konyndyk said. \u201cThat\u2019s not how public funding works. Here the cost is literal human lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">If not for Musk, USAID would probably still exist, Konynydk said. Without him, and administrators like Pete Marocco, USAID would have taken \u201csome huge hits\u201d, but would have survived in some form, like other health and science agencies \u2013 \u201cmuch diminished, much weaker, but still existing\u201d, Konyndyk said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cHis personal investment in that project gave it the reach all the way up to the White House,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Congress could have stopped the dismantling of USAID \u2013 and it still could, Konyndyk said. USAID is required to exist by law, and what few aid programs still operate have been choked by the slow release of funding from the state department, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">After the Covid pandemic caused about 20 million deaths around the globe, it was \u201cabsurd\u201d to cut programs that would prevent and prepare for the next pandemic, Rasella said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWhen you disrupt a single piece of that [aid], you can really create more and larger damage to the entire system,\u201d Rasella said. \u201cThis is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">But that means there\u2019s still time to act and avert some of the worst effects of ending foreign aid, Konyndyk said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe have a window here to try and bring some of this back before the worst of the harms set in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/technology\/elon-musk\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Elon Musk<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/world\/ebola\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Ebola<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/usaid\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">USAID<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/world\/africa\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/world\/congo\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-politics\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/global-development\/global-health\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Global health<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/analysis\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">analysis<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=What%20will%20define%20Elon%20Musk%E2%80%99s%20legacy?%20Doge%20cuts%20to%20USAID%20Ebola%20programs&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jul\/07\/elon-musk-doge-cuts-usaid-ebola?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2026%2Fjul%2F07%2Felon-musk-doge-cuts-usaid-ebola&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=technology\/2026\/jul\/07\/elon-musk-doge-cuts-usaid-ebola\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1kq7f60\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Staff carry a coffin for a victim of Ebola at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 26 June 2026. Photograph: Dieudonne Dirole\/EPA View image in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=2156\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}