[U: What A Crock!] UK Guardian: The Effects Of Tangerine's Attack On USAID -- On Global Mpox Clade 1b Outbreak '25 Control Efforts...

Updated, at Noon Eastern: Well, the latest Peter Morocco sworn statement is now on file. And the upshot here is -- the guy who had most of the operational responsibility for the USAID debacle. . . really didn't spend time thinking about. . . much of anything, on a logistical/planning basis -- before just dashing off an email firing nearly three thousand people (and in many cases, their young families) living in remote geographies (many of them quite dangerous). Just read all seven pages of it -- and shake your head. Damn. This level of ineptitude is pretty much the opposite of an APA compliant "carefully reasoned" change in policy, at an agency. End update.

The probability that there will be far more deaths -- globally, from Clade 1b -- than would have been seen, had Tangerine 2.0 NOT caused this chaos (even if/when the US Supreme Court ultimately rules funding must be restored) is largely beyond dispute now.

Here's that latest cautionary story, from the irrepressible UK Guardian:

. . .As the Trump administration dismantles the US Agency for International Development (USAid) and retreats from funding global public health efforts, mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – is at greater risk of becoming a wider global emergency, according to aid workers and global health experts.

“It’s a real mistake not to be doing everything we can to control this while we’re still able to,” said Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University focusing on risk assessment of infectious diseases. “Taking huge steps backwards is only going to make everything worse. . . .”

Cutting off resources to contain the current outbreak only increases the chances of mpox spreading to more countries, experts said.

“Disaster and catastrophe are the appropriate words for shutting down USAid. It’s not just about people overseas who will be affected but there’s a likelihood of mpox or the next pandemic spreading to the United States,” said a US-based researcher who studies infectious diseases and asked for anonymity because of ongoing projects with the National Institutes of Health and CDC.

A global outbreak of mpox in 2022 led to more than 100,000 cases in 122 countries and marked the first time that the disease had spread outside of central or western Africa. That outbreak has largely been contained and the number of cases is low, in part due to widespread vaccination efforts. . . .

In the mean time, while we await more court hearings and filings. . . take a look here -- for granular detail on all this -- courtesy our erstwhile Anon. commenter. [Do also read the comment box, below.] Hat tip!

We will resist. We will fight on, in the courts -- but what a senseless waste of. . . human life saving scientific achievement. Damn.

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