Over the weekend, I realized that even I didn’t have my mind wrapped around everything happening at USAID (the United States Agency for International Development). This is despite having followed that story closely and updating you in Inside Medicine as often as possible.
Fortunately for all of us, Dr. Atul Gawande joined me for another incredibly informative Live Q&A earlier this afternoon, this time on the Substack platform. As you’ll recall, Atul served as the Global Health lead for USAID (technically as Assistant Administrator) during the Biden administration.
As I mentioned toward the end of our conversation, Atul could easily have tapped out and stepped away after Inauguration Day. Instead, he has been working non-stop to try to mitigate the unfolding disaster that the Trump administration and DOGE have created.
At stake? Likely tens of thousands of lives already, and many more if we don’t reverse course. We covered:
The state of the USAID workforce.
Philosophical perspectives on why this is all happening.
The various legal challenges that have occurred (and their outcomes), and others which are in process.
Strategies for how to fight back.
I hope you find this as informative as I did, and join me in thanking Atul for his time and efforts.
Lastly, I am keeping this free (like all of the content lately) because I believe that perspectives like these need to be out there. So, as always, I kindly ask that you support Inside Medicine in whatever way you can, whether that means sharing this newsletter (or pressing that “Like” button) or upgrading to Premium to keep it sustainable. Above all, thanks for being here and staying in the fight. —Jeremy
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