--- title: "Mothers and Children Are Already Dying Because of Elon Musk’s Cuts" description: "Children are already dying due to cuts from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — but none that matter to the billionaire or his boss, Donald Trump. As the New York Times reports, care workers in African nations where the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) helped keep people alive say that in the weeks since DOGE led a freeze on foreign aid, their charges have begun to perish.  " date: "2025-03-17" modified: "2025-03-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/mothers-children-dying-musk-cuts" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "AIDS" - "doge" - "elon musk" - "HIV" --- # Mothers and Children Are Already Dying Because of Elon Musk’s Cuts ![People have already started dying due to cuts in foreign aid from DOGE agency — but Elon Musk insists they have not.]() *\Image: Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* People are already dying due to cuts from Elon Musk's [Department of Government Efficiency]() (DOGE). As the [*New York Times* reports](), care workers in African nations — which, lest we forget, the president called "[shithole countries]()" during his first turn in the Oval Office — relied upon United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to keep their charges alive. Musk [insisted earlier in March]() that "no one has died" from [DOGE's freeze on USAID]() grants — but the death of 10-year-old South Sudanese boy Peter Donde and others like him demonstrate**s** otherwise. Thanks to medications disbursed through the US [President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]() (PEPFAR), a George W. Bush initiative, children like Donde were able to survive and even thrive despite their parents dying from the deadly virus. After Musk and Trump cruelly and [possibly illegally]() froze USAID, however, those children were on their own — and are now suffering tragic and preventable deaths. In late February, the newspaper notes, Donde died of a pneumonia infection that he got after his immune system took a hit without the medications keeping his viral load low from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Moses Okeny Labani, an outreach worker who helped the 10-year-old and nearly 150 others stay alive, told the *NYT* the boy "would not have died" if USAID was still supplying funds for his medicine. Prior to speaking to the newspaper, Labani had never heard of Musk. Once *NYT* writer Nicholas Kristof gave him a quick rundown of the billionaire's bona fides — and [his claim]() that "no one has died as \[a\] result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding" — the care worker insisted the South African-born magnate was "wrong." Donde, unfortunately, isn't the only exception to Musk's erroneous assertion that nobody has died from the cuts. The *NYT* learned of others in South Sudan alone — including 8-year-old Achol Deng, five-year-old Evan Anzoo, and his mother, 35-year-old Jennifer Inyaa — who have all gotten sick and died in recent weeks after losing access to USAID-managed care. Margret Amjuma, a healthcare employee who confirmed Deng and Donde's deaths, had a dire warning that has been [repeatedly echoed]() in [other publications](): "Many more children will die in the coming weeks." Perhaps most heartbreaking, however, is the pre-epitaph from Angelina Doki, a volunteer whose charges have already started to die following [USAID shutting off supply chains]() for life-saving antiretrovirals. HIV positive herself, Doki told the newspaper that her own supply of antiretrovirals had run out and suggested that she, too, will die soon. "I am going to develop the virus," the healthcare volunteer said. "My viral load will go high. I will develop \[tuberculosis\]. I will have pneumonia." "We are," Doki concluded, "going to die." **More on healthcare in Trump's America:** [*The FDA, Which is Run By A Homophobic Conspiracy Theorist, Has Raided a Poppers Company*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()