An outbreak of Bundibugyo (“BVD”), a disease caused by a strain of the Ebola virus, has broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak was declared an international emergency by the World Health Organization after it confirmed 378 of Bundibugyo cases, 60 deaths, and 16 cases and 1death in neighboring Uganda.
BVD’s fatality rate is 30%–50% and it’s spread through direct contact with the body fluids of infected persons or those who have died from the disease.
Dr. Maneji Mangundu who just returned from the outbreak’s epicenter was asked how Trump’s humanitarian aid cutbacks affected the ability to contain BVD. He didn’t hesitate. He warned that Trump’s cuts to USAID have reduced the funding necessary to battle the disease, and, as a result, BVD now poses an international public health risk.
Doctors Without Borders warned that Trump’s cuts will cripple the ability to deploy qualified medical experts at BVD’s epicenter. As a VP at a medical technology company focusing on public health and defense against infectious diseases said, “the most effective intervention is identifying … infected individuals, contact tracing, isolating, and treating them.” Sadly, Trump’s medical aid cuts make that very difficult. As Dr. Mangundu lamented, “by now we would have had a lot of teams on the ground responding. But the limitation of resources makes it difficult.”
If Trump repeats his abdication of presidential responsibility during the Covid pandemic, America will suffer the most BVD deaths and cases of any other country. At the end of Trump’s first term, America was the world’s richest country but it suffered more Covid cases and deaths than any other country including China, whose population is more than four times larger. The U.S accounted for just 4.2 percent of the world’s population but 30 percent of COVID cases and 19 percent of COVID deaths. Twelve other countries, including China, were returning to work while the U.S. remained shut down.
While China was providing thousands of virus-fighting supplies to countries on three continents, the U.S. was so short of protective gear that it had to ask other countries for help. Yet, in true form, Trump boasted, “We have so many companies making so many products” and “We have millions of masks being done. We have respirators. We have ventilators.”
During Covid, Trump abandoned seven decades of U.S. leadership in
fighting infectious diseases including Ebola and six other global pandemics. In contrast, Obama stopped Ebola at its source. He sent more than 3,000 health officials to West Africa as part of a 10,000 international team that he helped organize. They provided treatment units, hospital beds, medical equipment, contact tracing, health care training, burial units and travel restrictions. Cases fell by 80 percent from their peak levels.
He also led the fight against Ebola at home by preparing hospitals, treatment centers, health departments and health care workers to combat a possible outbreak. In total, just 11 cases and two deaths were reported in the U.S.
Having failed to control COVID’s spread, Trump did what he always does: he flooded Americans with massive misinformation and shifted blame to Obama, governors, the media and, most bizarrely, the World Health Organization, whose funding he suspended.
He predicted the mortality rate “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” that it would “disappear like a miracle,” that “everybody infected is getting better.”
Even before Covid, Trump was warned that America wasn’t prepared for the next pandemic and he saw the results in the record Covid cases and deaths under his watch. Now he’s witnessing the beginning of the spread of the deadly BVD. Yet he’s intent on continuing to disassemble the countries defense against infectious diseases. Only the sitting Republicans can stop him. Where the hell are they?
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