Health Policy Watch: One Year Later: The Effect of US ‘Chainsaw’ on Global Health

20 January 2026

Health Policy Watch news story

One year ago on 20 January, the Trump administration exploded the global health sector by immediately “pausing” all aid for 90 days – and dispensing with 83% of US Agency for International Development (USAID) projects six weeks later.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization Director General, described the US actions as the “greatest disruption to global health finance in memory”, “sowing chaos”, threatening to roll back decades of progress on infectious and neglected diseases.

To date, 757,314 people – the majority children – have died from the funding cuts, according to ImpactCounter, which tracks the effect of USAID cuts via sophisticated modelling tools. That is 88 deaths every hour.

Read the full news story here.

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SEE ALSO:

• Human Rights Watch: Donor Nation Cuts to Global Health Financing Affect Millions