OPINION to help others overseas .
The current executive order would steal citizenship from these working families by setting “ ancestry ” as a qualification for citizenship , defining a caste system that repudiates all notions of “ one nation under God , with liberty and justice for all .” That ’ s the Ugly .
USAID stands for the U . S . Agency for International Development and since the executive order was handed down , researchers and scientists all over the world have been scrambling to stop “ developing .” Their livelihoods , their dwellings and their professional and personal connections have all been attacked by this order . They are not sure where to go , how to get there , how to pay for transport and new homes – many have lived for years overseas , and all of their lives are built around their service to USAID and the communities they help . According to a February 7 New York Times article by Patrick Kingsley and Adam Rasgon , the stop order also “ has endangered the funding for food , tents and medical treatment for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza .” 1 Moreover , the threats to the aid supply chain “ risk destabilizing the fragile cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel , which is contingent on the entry of 4,200 aid and commercial trucks to the territory .”
Many lawsuits have been filed , multiple judges are issuing stop-orders to the presidential orders . Another federal judge had to order the reinstatement of the CDC funding , and the billion-dollar question now is , who is going to make the judges ’ orders stick ? That ’ s the Bad .
The only GOOD is that scientists , doctors and community leaders have leapt into the breach to stymie this wholesale destruction with lawsuits .
But that is cold comfort : even a trauma surgeon cannot stop the bleeding of the medical research community . Our only hope is that some wiser heads in the presidential circle will ratchet back this wholesale attack on humanitarian medical care , both here and abroad .
Is there any way the judges force the President to obey ?
Reference
1 https :// www . nytimes . com / 2025 / 02 / 07 / world / middleeast / usaid-trump-gazaaid . html
Dr . Barry is an internist and Associate Professor of Medicine ( Gratis Faculty ) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine , currently retired and mulling her next moves .
Removing the vast majority of USAID staff will intensely complicate the confirmation and audit of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the agency ’ s local partner groups – the boots on the ground in Gaza . The workers have formed connections with people in an atmosphere of mutual trust , and those bonds will break when only 21 people ( instead of 200 ) remain on the USAID side . We have continuously sent mattresses , medical goods , blankets , hygiene kits and personnel : taking these away cannot help but have a political fallout .
Here at home , untold academic researchers have abruptly lost their funding , in every area of medical research . What has been cutting-edge medical care in this country is under a terrible siege : patients in mid-study who lose their treatment , devices in mid-development failing only due to funding . We are facing a nightmare of ignorance and failure instead of brilliance and determined science .
Even worse , the President has removed us from the World Health Organization . The WHO was founded by the United Nations in 1948 , with the majority of support and help from America , plus our former Allies . The WHO provides our early-bird warnings of emerging epidemics – Ebola and Covid for instance – and constantly monitors the ongoing threat of HIV , TB and a multitude of chronic diseases . Our work with the WHO helps many poorer countries keep their citizens protected . Our CDC works closely with people all over the world to identify and help combat the many public health monsters . The WHO has kept us in the good graces of a large part of the world : but no longer .
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