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All Tuberculosis programs funded by the U.S. Gov were officially terminated
- jisnsm 2y ago[flagged]
- pjc50 2y agoSecond comment in thread: https://bsky.app/profile/johngreensbluesky.bsky.social/post/3lj6krxlnsk2d https://bsky.app/profile/johngreensbluesky.bsky.social/post/... "Most countries pay for their own drugs and tests" But this stuff is a global public good. Diseases do not respect borders, did we not learn that from COVID?
- croes 2y agoRest of that comment >but the GDF is the underlying infrastructure that makes it all possible, and shutting it down stops treatment for millions of people and will spell their death.
- pk-protect-ai 2y agoSetting humanitarian arguments aside, here it is: Because preventing pandemics is cheaper than ignoring their possibilities.
- milesrout 2y agoMy understanding is that it is impossible for TB to become pandemic. It is an unusually slow-progressing disease. Pandemics are always diseases that spread quickly like influenza and measles.
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoIt's infectious and deadly, it actually doesn't have to do anything more to scare the bejesus out of people and have profound social and economic effects, should it show up in numbers in the future.
- milesrout 2y agoAs I understand it, it is treatable with antibiotics. I am not saying it isn't serious, but the argument that it poses any real risk of pandemic in the West is absurd.
- perihelions 2y agoIf you interrupt antibiotic treatment (like we're right now to a few million people, no big deal) you evolve antibiotic-resistant strains that are no longer treatable. - "According to the report, approximately 20% of TB cases globally are estimated to be resistant to at least one of the first- or second-line anti-TB drugs, and 5% are resistant to both isoniazid and rifampicin, the most powerful and commonly used antibiotics in first-line treatment. Of the estimated 480,000 cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, approximately 10% are either extensively drug-resistant (XDR)—with additional resistance to second-line drugs—or totally drug resistant." - "While TB is curable when patients adhere to the treatment regimen, MDR- and XDR-TB are more problematic. Treatment options are limited, expensive, and often toxic, and drug therapy can last up to 2 years. The report estimates mortality rates of around 40% for MDR-TB and 60% for XDR-TB. And while China, India, Russia, and South Africa have the highest burden of MDR- and XDR-TB, widespread international travel and migration means drug-resistant TB has no borders." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/antimicrobial-stewardship/report-warns-rise-drug-resistant-tuberculosis https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/antimicrobial-stewardship/report-... (2017)
- kemotep 2y agoThe infrastructure to help get antibiotics to people is being shut down. This is absolutely an instance of someone tearing down Chesterton’s fence. If TB poses no risk because antibiotics are widely available would it not follow that reducing their availability would increase the risk TB poses?
- milesrout 2y agoAntibiotics are widely available in the US. The claim I was responding to was that taking away this funding risked harm to the US, specifically.
- someothherguyy 2y agoThey never did that, but here, as these things are being purged. https://web.archive.org/web/20250131212146/https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/tuberculosis https://web.archive.org/web/20250131212146/https://www.usaid... https://web.archive.org/web/20250131235054/https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/tuberculosis/resources/publications/usaid-global-tuberculosis-strategy-2023-2030 https://web.archive.org/web/20250131235054/https://www.usaid... Where the money went: https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_AIDGHIO1700003_7200 https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_AIDGHIO1700003_72...
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoIt's good policy. I could go into detail but the short version is we live on a single planet, what goes around comes around. Some people think the US can isolate itself and not worry about what the rest of the world does or thinks, but that is a dangerous delusion. What ever assistance we provide others is paid back in other ways, just like being neighborly isn't mandatory but is a very good idea.
- steeve 2y agoSir this is not X
- gmerc 2y agoA the techbros cost cutting to their desired their “cleansing fire” to rid the world of the unworthy low net worth individuals.
- DannyBee 2y agoTrump told a room packed with people he was going to make it so they didn't have to vote again. They just didn't realize he was going to achieve it by cutting off all their healthcare so they die
- smallhands 2y agoDid America voted in an enemy as their president????
- megadata 2y agoEntirely possible: "The former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev, recently claimed in a Facebook post that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, when the 40-year-old real-estate mogul first visited Moscow." https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5162890-assessing-new-allegations-that-trump-was-recruited-by-the-kgb/ https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5162890-assessing-...
- subpixel 2y agoEntirely feasible and yet I can’t imagine any kompromat from a visit to Moscow - sexual or financial - hanging over Trumps head today.
- K0balt 2y agoYou don’t need kompromat if you are the FSB. The carrot is your family gets to join the oligarch club, which has always been a fascination for Trump ever since he managed to piss away most of the fortune he inherited. The stick is that we will kill your children and everyone you care about if you turn your back on us. You too, if it’s not hard, but we don’t even care at that point. The FSB shares that kind of reach with the USA and Isreal only on the global stage, and they have made it into a principal resource for projecting influence.
- CamperBob2 2y agoIt's not about Trump. The FBI was pretty sure that the Russians hacked both the DNC and RNC servers in the leadup to the 2016 election, but strangely, we only got to see the DNC's dirty laundry. It seems likely that the entire GOP is a captive asset of Putin. If not, it's hard to imagine what they would do differently. If this is how we are finally defeated as a world power, it's hard to say anything but "Well played, I guess."
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- renewiltord 2y agoA fascinating thing has been discovering that the US is single-handedly responsible for a raft of world improvements on its own. Despite being cast as the villain, it turns out the US government was responsible for so much of significance. But America was asked to leave things alone, and perhaps we should. If the US was the only thing standing between order and chaos and they want chaos: give them chaos.
- itishappy 2y ago> But America was asked to leave things alone By whom?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- croes 2y agoThe US are both, one hand chaos, one hand order. Remember Escobar payed for hospitals to be built. Nobody is 100% evil. But now the lose this balance.
- dudefeliciano 2y agoenlightened centrism really needs to be stopped, this "logic" helps nobody
- alexjplant 2y agoYour comment is logically fallacious. Instead of addressing the substance of their argument you attack a straw man because their opinion doesn't align with yours. The fact that it isn't one extreme or the other is of no consequence to its validity; your dislike for it is based strictly on its nuance, not whether it holds up, and that makes no sense. They even capitulated by saying > But now the lose this balance. and it still wasn't good enough for you. In case it isn't clear enough: I'm not defending "enlightened centrism" (whatever that is) so much as pointing out that your reasoning is flawed to the point of adding negative value to the discussion. Please review HN Guidelines [1], particularly the part about comments. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- convivialdingo 2y agoHere's what I found researching this. US domestic TB funding by CDC, through state and local programs, have not been cut. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is still funded by the US congressional appropriations through State department ($6B for 2023-2025) but future funding is in review. USAID funding for the Global Drug Facility was cut. GDF is a treatment coordinator which helps deliver drugs and treatments to areas in need. GDF is managed by the Stop TB Partnership (a UN OPS program) and has largely been a success so it's not going away as it's funded by multiple nations and private organizations. State Department could include GDF in the existing emergency humanitarian waiver.
- adamredwoods 2y agoGDF for reference, on what it does (2007) apparently Canada is the biggest funder: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2636664/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2636664/
- cyanydeez 2y agoSp, what idiots would call a good start
- airhangerf15 2y agoHonestly, not enough USAID was cut. Most of it will move to the State Department. USAID is used to hide clandestine CIA operatives that destabilize states. Corbett covered it years ago: https://odysee.com/@corbettreport:0/flashback-usaid:7 https://odysee.com/@corbettreport:0/flashback-usaid:7 It's fascinates me that people who have never heard of USAID, who are completely unfamiliar with how many left-wing groups have protested it over the decades, are suddenly outrages when a program is cut they knew nothing about until 5 minutes ago. Nations become more authoritarian after USAID. There is no free lunch.
- foobarbecue 2y agoThis is a false conspiracy theory. Source: my parents are state and commerce dept diplomats. I grew up living overseas, and worked in a US embassy myself. I have known USAID people and the lifesaving work they do since I was a kid (I'm 38). CIA is CIA, and it has done things you may be rightfully uncomfortable with. If you don't like the CIA, complain about the CIA. You, and this Corbett guy, are spreading misinformation with the result of destroying the careers of people who have dedicated their lives to good, and you are murdering people overseas, such as those who unexpectedly had their only source of antiretrovirals cut off. Also, I never heard anyone call it "US aid" until this year. It's always been pronounced "U S A I D". So, that's one way to tell if someone just found out about it, I guess.