Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), acknowledged that his organization had inadvertently cut funding for a USAID program focused on Ebola prevention. Addressing former President Donald Trump’s cabinet, Musk stated that while DOGE aims to streamline government spending, mistakes were inevitable.
“We will make mistakes,” Musk admitted. “We won’t be perfect, but when we make mistakes, we’ll fix them very quickly. For example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled, very briefly, was Ebola prevention.”
Musk, wearing a “dark MAGA” hat, reportedly laughed about the error, emphasizing that once the mistake was identified, DOGE took swift action to restore the program. “I think we all want Ebola prevention,” he said. “So we restored it immediately, and there was no interruption.”
However, reports from the Washington Post contradict Musk’s claim. Current and former USAID officials have indicated that the agency’s Ebola prevention initiatives have largely been dismantled since DOGE froze outgoing payments and gutted the global-assistance agency last month. These officials insist that despite Musk’s assurances, crucial programs remain inoperative, and response teams prepared to combat potential outbreaks have been dismantled.
“There have been no efforts to ‘turn on’ anything in prevention of Ebola and other diseases,” said Nidhi Bouri, a former senior USAID official who managed healthcare outbreak responses during the Biden administration.
Ebola is a deadly virus with symptoms that include fever, vomiting, and internal and external bleeding. Previous outbreaks, such as the 2014 epidemic in West Africa, claimed over 11,000 lives and even spread to the United States. Health experts warn that without robust prevention programs, the risk of another outbreak remains high.
Despite concerns over health impacts, Musk remains focused on fiscal austerity. “We need to move quickly if we are to achieve a trillion-dollar deficit reduction in the financial year 2026,” he stated. “It requires saving four billion dollars per day, every day, from now through the end of September. But we can do it, and we will do it.”
The decision to prioritize rapid cost-cutting over health preparedness has drawn widespread criticism. While Musk insists that mistakes will be swiftly corrected, the alleged dismantling of USAID’s Ebola prevention measures suggests that global health security may be compromised in pursuit of budgetary goals. Whether DOGE will fully reinstate the program remains an open question as the debate over government efficiency versus public health rages on.
