Tornado Alley (PROG)

[dbergh]

Feb 7, 2025 — The Trump administration has permitted the resumption of a range of global health initiatives despite its ongoing foreign aid freeze.

It’s unclear, however, how quickly the money will start flowing again. Much of the U.S. support for these health initiatives goes through USAID and relies on its staff and contractors, and the administration has been moving to slash the agency’s staff and ordering people working abroad to return to the U.S. (Friday afternoon federal judge Carl Nichols said he would temporarily block plans to put some 2,200 employees on paid leave and to recall nearly all agency workers posted abroad.)

The U.S.’s widely heralded HIV/AIDS initiative known as PEPFAR has also received a waiver allowing some of its work to resume, but some groups that rely on the program are reportedly still not getting funding.

In the memo, the USAID official, Nicholas Enrich, wrote that services that go to addressing childhood and maternal mortality and those focused on preventing and treating malaria and tuberculosis should restart within 30 days. It also says that the U.S. should resume emergency responses to infectious disease outbreaks, such as mpox and Ebola.

https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/07/trump-usaid-malaria-tuberculosis-funding-restored-waiver-granted-foreign-aid-freeze/