Despite a court order and the partial lifting of a freeze, U.S. foreign is at a standstill

Global health initiatives, including HIV efforts, remain shut down in many places despite the partial lifting of a freeze on U.S. foreign aid. The result has been shipments of medical equipment left unclaimed at docks because aid organizations have closed. Clinical trials in Africa, south Asia and Latin America have been suspended, with access to treatment—and doctors—cut off. The U.S. Agency for International Development is essentially closed for business to the rest of the world.

The USAID website is offline.

On his first day back as U.S. president, Donald Trump issued an executive order freezing foreign aid grants for 90 days, pending a review to see if the programs conformed to the administration’s agenda. 

“All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy,” stated the January 20 executive order.

Trump’s newly confirmed secretary of state Marco Rubio took it a step further, putting a halt to all foreign assistance. Days later, in response to public outcry, Rubio allowed a partial waiver to restore lifesaving humanitarian aid. 

But according to media reports, including from the New York Times, NPR, ProPublica and Vox, the partial waiver has done little to resume the flow of assistance and there’s widespread confusion over what programs are covered or how to apply for the waiver.

Dozens of programs for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. According to a New York Times report, “shuttered HIV and tuberculosis treatment programs have been told by their contacts at USAID that they cannot resume work until they receive written instruction that the waiver applies specifically to them.” And although a federal judge blocked the freeze until Feb. 3, USAID offices and programs are still following the freeze order. 

“The waiver for humanitarian assistance has been a farce,” one USAID official reportedly told ProPublica.

About 500 U.S.-based USAID workers have been fired; another 60 of the agency’s senior management have been placed on administrative leave.

“This would lead to the destruction of US foreign assistance as we know it,” Jeremy Konyndyk, a former veteran USAID official and current president of Refugees International, reportedly said in an interview according to Vox.

One of USAID’s biggest projects is the global health supply chain, distributing medicines and supplies for HIV, malaria, maternal health and more in over 55 countries. The network’s employees have been ordered to stop work except for essential tasks, such as guarding the supplies that are now being stored in warehouses.

“A chaotic, unexplained and abrupt pause with no guidance has left all our partners around the world high and dry and America looking like a severely unreliable actor to do business with,” a USAID official told ProPublica, adding that other countries will now have good reason to look to China or Russia for the help they’re no longer getting from the U.S.

The abrupt freeze of funding and distribution of medical aid has jeopardized global health and undermined trust in the U.S.

In East Africa, medical researchers have been working for years on contraception and HIV prevention for women. They are at a loss at what to tell the participants in their clinical trials. 

“We have women testing vaginal rings, they already have the rings in them, people who got an injectable for HIV prevention—when you say ‘stop,’ what happens to them?” an HIV researcher who is an investigator on a number of clinical trials told the New York Times. “We have an ethical obligation to people who volunteer for trials.”

This story has been compiled from other media accounts.