Craig Spencer, a public health professor and emergency medicine physician at Brown University, is warning that President Donald Trump and his administration are poised to leave the United States a haven for disease.
Writing in The Atlantic, Spencer argues that Trump and his ally Elon Musk have "actively dismantled the infrastructure the country relies on to detect and confront deadly pathogens," and adds that "we are sure to regret it."
Spencer points to several key decisions made by the administration that are particularly alarming: The dismantlement of the United States Agency for International Development, the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization, and the decision to clamp down on public communications from the Centers for Disease Control.
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"Undermining even one of these institutions would have posed a serious threat; gutting them all at once is an invitation for future outbreaks," he warns.
He notes the crucial work that USAID has been doing in containing the deadly Ebola virus as an example of the way that foreign aid also benefits the United States given that it's in America's interest to prevent Ebola from spreading to the United States as well.
"With startling speed, the country is turning its back on global health," warns Spencer. "In doing so, it is endangering other nations, and also itself."
