USAID cuts could lead to 14 million deaths over the next five years, researchers say

More than 14 million people could die over the next five years because of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S.

More than 14 million people could die over the next five years because of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to an analysis published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet.

Researchers calculated the lifesaving benefits of USAID funding over a 21-year period, then used the data to determine how many lives would be lost without USAID funding in the future.

The analysis found that, from 2001 through 2021, USAID-funded programs prevented nearly 92 million deaths across 133 countries, including more than 25 million deaths from HIV/AIDS, around 11 million from diarrheal diseases, 8 million from malaria and nearly 5 million from tuberculosis.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in March that he was canceling 83% of USAID’s programs, which he said did not serve “the core national interests of the United States,” and added that the State Department would absorb the roughly 1,000 remaining programs.

The action brought many overseas humanitarian efforts to a grinding halt, leading to the closings of food kitchens and health clinics in underserved countries and in some cases delaying or stopping the distribution of lifesaving medications, bed nets to ward off malaria, nutritional packets for starving children and chlorine tablets to disinfect dirty water.