With help from DOGE, RFK Jr.’s “Health Freedom” era delivers 243,000 more child deaths
Congratulations to the Department of Health and Human Services! Under the guidance of conspiracy theorist Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the decline in global child mortality has been reversed. According to the Gates Foundation and the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, nearly a quarter of a million more children under five are projected to die in 2025 compared to last year.
The number of deaths of children under 5 years old is projected to rise this year for the first time in decades, the Gates Foundation, the philanthropy chaired by billionaire Bill Gates that is a major funder of global health and development causes, said in a report Thursday.
About 243,000 more children under 5 years have died or will die this year than in 2024, according to the projections, which were made by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which measures global-health indicators and is funded in part by the Gates Foundation.
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Driving the shift, Gates said, is a 27% decline in global health aid from donors in wealthy countries, including the U.S. and some European governments. Such aid pays for medicine, health clinics and workers, food and other needs for children in poor countries.
The reductions include the Trump administration’s cutting and reorganizing of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “I believe that was a gigantic mistake, and that’s partly why we’ve had the turmoil and increase in deaths this year,” Gates said.
The causes aren’t a mystery. Cuts to global health aid, weakened support for vaccinations, and the destabilization of long-standing international public health partnerships have created a perfect storm. Policies linked to RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine rhetoric and “health freedom” ideology are now federal policy. While millions of children face malnutrition, disease, and the collapse of frontline medical systems, the U.S. government is focused on shifting global health priorities to reflect Secretary Brainworm’s ideological crusades rather than scientific consensus or humanitarian urgency.