Efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Uganda were “accidentally cancelled for a very short time,” after Elon Musk reassured cabinet members Wednesday, and the Trump administration has concluded at least four of five contracts for Ebola-related work in the country.
The four cancelled contracts are a small portion of 10,000 contracts and grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, which ended Wednesday.
But they were important. Since January, Uganda has experienced a severe Ebola outbreak, from which the country has simply emerged. According to a former USAID official, the contract funded Ebola screening at the airport and protective equipment for healthcare workers, helping to prevent infection by survivors of the disease.
Musk told cabinet members that the administration “recovered Ebola prevention quickly and there was no interruption.” However, his statement was inaccurate, according to two former USAID officials who know the situation in Uganda. (Officers asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.)
In theory, the exemption allowed continued work involving pathogens such as Ebola, Marburg, and MPOX, as well as avian flu preparations. However, in reality, little money was delivered.
Few organizations provide financial reserves that provide these services to continue, and even fewer trust that they will be refunded.
Their fear may have been justified. On Wednesday night, Supreme Court Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr. decided that USAID and the State Department would not need to immediately pay more than $1.5 billion for work already completed.
Contrary to Musk's claims, work in progress without these payments was suspended.
At the airport in Entebbe, Uganda, Ebola screenings had been suspended for more than two weeks, according to a former USAID official with knowledge of the situation. The organisations doing that decided a few days ago to resume work with their own funds.
The group's contract ended Wednesday night.
The White House refused to clarify Musk's comments and directed inquiries to the man himself. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There were other gaps. The first Ebola patient in the current outbreak has urged him to go to six facilities before he died, and to request protective equipment for medical workers diagnosed and exposed to the Ugandan government.
USAID stocks such gear in its Nairobi warehouse. However, the facility is managed by the World Health Organization, and USAID employees were not permitted to communicate with the WHO, let alone pay to release the gear.
After waiting more than a week for permission to contact the WHO, officials were suddenly ordered to come up with another solution. They eventually paid about $100,000 to source protective equipment elsewhere.
“To be cost-effective,” said a former employee with knowledge of the event. The contract with an alternative provider has also ended.
Even the waiver process was full of confusion. The Trump administration requested details on the number of lives each intervention saves, and USAID staff struggled to link risky resources to a certain number of lives that save minor resources, such as hand sanitizer and risk communication messages.
USAID staff purges don't put most people. The agency had over 50 people dedicated to answering outbreaks. This is the result of Congress pushing to strengthen pandemic preparations.
That number was initially cut in half, but only six on Sunday, some of which include some of the Core Ebola teams. Those fired included key organizational experts in laboratory diagnosis and managers of Ebola responses.
“I don't know how six people will carry out the answers of four outbreaks,” said one official who was let go. “When you've completely staffed, it's complicated at the best.”
