Elon Musk Admits DOGE "Accidentally" Axed Ebola Prevention Program
- Elon Musk admitted during a Trump cabinet meeting that DOGE "accidentally" cut a USAID program aimed at preventing Ebola, but claims it was quickly restored
- Critics, including former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk, argue that DOGE’s cuts have severely damaged the U.S. government’s ability to respond to global health crises
- Musk defended the aggressive cuts, stating they are necessary to achieve a trillion-dollar deficit reduction by 2026, despite concerns over public health risks
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), acknowledged during a meeting with Donald Trump’s cabinet on Wednesday that his team had mistakenly terminated a USAID program dedicated to preventing the spread of Ebola.
Musk, who wore a "dark MAGA" hat during the meeting, admitted that DOGE had made errors while implementing widespread cuts to the federal workforce.
Source: Getty Images
“We will make mistakes,” Musk said. “We won’t be perfect, but when we make mistakes, we’ll fix them very quickly.
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For example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled, very briefly, was Ebola prevention.”
He explained that once the error was brought to his attention, his team acted swiftly to reinstate the program. “I think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption,” Musk added.
Despite the quick reversal, Musk defended the aggressive approach taken by DOGE, stressing the importance of rapid action to achieve a trillion-dollar deficit reduction by the end of the 2026 fiscal year.
“It requires saving four billion dollars per day, every day, from now through the end of September,” he said. “But we can do it, and we will do it.”
Musk’s role in the Trump administration has been unconventional. Although he is not an official cabinet member and has not been confirmed by the Senate, he has been designated a “special government employee” tasked with streamlining government operations.
This has resulted in significant cuts to federal agencies, including USAID, which has seen thousands of its employees placed on leave, leaving only 600 staff to manage its global projects.
Critics descend on Musk over cut-costing acts
However, critics argue that the cuts have severely undermined the U.S. government’s ability to respond to global health crises.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who led the federal government’s response to the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak as director of USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, criticized Musk’s claims of a seamless fix.
“This is bunk from Elon,” Konyndyk wrote on X.
“They have laid off most of the experts, they’re bankrupting most of the partner organizations, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC. What’s left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their a**** politically.”
He added that the government’s capacity to respond to outbreaks and disasters “has now been wrecked” by DOGE’s actions.
Konyndyk further alleged that DOGE had banned leadership at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from communicating with the World Health Organization (WHO), further crippling the nation’s ability to address global health threats.
“Scrambling to recall a few staff and issue some belated funding is just window dressing,” he concluded.
Message from Trump and Elon Musk to federal workers
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that in a recent move by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk targeting the federal workforce, employees began receiving emails on February 22 asking them to explain what work they did last week.
Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
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Source: Legit.ng
