Bill Gates warns of health disaster: "It's not too late to turn back"

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has criticized the Trump administration's massive cuts to US foreign aid, saying they will have "catastrophic and entirely avoidable" consequences for global health programs.

Gates, who has been criticizing aid cuts for some time, now brought up the striking plight of a doctor in Africa. The doctor, noting that the clinic, which receives support from the US's PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), is about to close, said, "Our life-saving HIV treatments for children will run out in just a few weeks." He added:

“And this problem is not limited to just our clinic.”

Gates' warnings come after the Trump administration's decision to cut foreign aid and shut down agencies like USAID, a decision reportedly influenced by Elon Musk and a new agency within the federal government called DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), which has been given the authority to cut costs.

“The devastating effects of these outages are completely preventable, and it’s not too late to turn back,” Gates said in a post on his X (former Twitter) account.

5 MILLION CHILDREN SURVIVED

In a video accompanying the X post, Gates noted that thanks to US global vaccine aid, child deaths have fallen from 10 million to less than 5 million per year. He emphasized that the Trump administration's withdrawal of Gavi (Vaccine Alliance) support would mean "an additional million deaths."

“I hope we continue to be generous enough to keep these people alive,” the billionaire concluded.

HE HAD WARNED BEFORE

This isn't Bill Gates' first warning, however. In a post on X in early July, he highlighted a study published in the medical journal The Lancet examining the impact of US aid cuts. According to the study, if current cuts continue, the number of children dying before reaching the age of five will increase by 8 million by 2040.

While sharing this data, Gates said, “The facts are simple and devastating: Aid cuts have already taken lives, and deaths will continue to rise.”

Harsh criticism of Elon Musk

In an interview with the Financial Times in May, Gates openly criticized Musk, whom he sees as the architect of these policies.

"It's not a pretty picture that the richest man in the world is killing the world's poorest children," the billionaire said, adding that Musk could become a great philanthropist in the future, but "for now, the richest man in the world is playing a role in the deaths of the world's poorest children."