Dr. Atul Gawande: Hundreds of Thousands Have Already Died Since Trump Closed USAID

“We had the cure for death from malnutrition, and we took it away.” We speak to surgeon and health policy expert Atul Gawande about the Trump administration’s near-total dismantling of USAID. Gawande, the head of global health at USAID during the Biden administration, is featured in the short film Rovina’s Choice, filmed at a refugee camp at the border between Kenya and South Sudan earlier this year. We play an excerpt from the film and discuss the impact of USAID cuts on humanitarian crises around the world. Gawande says hundreds of thousands of deaths have already occurred as a result of the loss of aid. “We’re seeing early deaths, like the malnutrition cases, and then we’ll see the wave that’s more to come.”