US ''Choosing Not To Stop" Ebola Outbreak After Massive Public Health Cuts; No Cure, No Vax; 2,371 Jobs Lost at WHO

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Thu May 21, 2026, 01:52 PM - Edit history (1)

'US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say.' The Guardian, May 21, 2026. - Edit.

- Hundreds of cases reported in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) after USAID has been dismantled and key scientific research canceled 🥼
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A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts. There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused 2 outbreaks in recent decades.

Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.

In the past year, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, thousands of staff at US health agencies were laid off, communications stalled and key scientific research canceled. There are 482 suspected cases and about 116 deaths reported since April in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with 2 cases and one death in Uganda and potential spread to neighboring South Sudan. The outbreak “might have been going on for a few months”, said Kristian Andersen, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research.

- Vaccine to tackle Ebola outbreak will take 6 to 9 months, says WHO. - Read more

The outbreak was immediately declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), before even convening the committee that usually makes that determination. Officials say it may last for months. “The DRC is one of the most vulnerable health systems in the world, and was the 2nd-biggest recipient of USAID funding,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director, Center for Global Health Policy & Politics, Georgetown Univ. The US withdrawal of funding with “zero notice” has been “disruptive to the country’s basic activities”, he said.

US foreign assistance to the DRC dropped from $1.4bn in 2024 to $431m in 2025 and only $21m so far this year. Assistance to Uganda dropped from $674m to $377m in 2025 and a negative $1.2m so far in 2026.

“It was pennies compared to what you get in return,” Andersen said of global health investments. It is far cheaper and easier to prevent and contain outbreaks than it is to respond to them, he said. With the US cutting off the first option, the 2nd scenario will become increasingly common. The US also announced it would leave the WHO and end $130m in funding, which resulted in 2,371 lost jobs at the organization, Kavanagh said, calling the cuts a “self-inflicted wound that the administration has really brought on us”.

This outbreak and response was “deeply foreseeable when you gut public health surveillance and you gut public health capacity”, Kavanagh added... - More,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/ebola-outbreak-public-health
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- ALSO:

- 'WHO chief concerned over 'scale and speed' of Ebola outbreak,' NPR, May 20, 2026.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/g-s1-122971/who-chief-concerned-over-scale-and-speed-of-ebola-outbreak

- World Health Organization (WHO) website,
https://www.who.int/

- 'World Health Organization Issues HANTAVIRUS ALERT,' Thom Hartmann, guest Dr. Eric Feigl- Ding, public health scientist, May 16, 2026, (10:48 mins).

[Girard442]

1. HHS, NIH, & CDC all pissed Trump off.

He wants his revenge. What's a few million (more) dead people?

[appalachiablue]

2. Definitely! They want us all dead - useless 'peasants'

[Soul_of_Wit]

3. We have choices in life

We can choose to understand the fundamentals of the scientific method. We can choose to understand basic concepts of public health. We can choose to respect expertise. Wide swaths of the American electorate did not choose wisely in voting for Donald.

[betsuni]

4. But her emails. But he's old. But she said the wrong thing on "The View." But the Middle East. But Both Sides.

And this is the result of not taking consequences of elections seriously.

[appalachiablue]

5. Absolutely, so many uninformed & dangerous. A country declining fast & how to turn it around...