On Thursday, April 6, Bill Gates expressed deep concern over the potential early closure of the Gates Foundation and criticized Elon Musk for his role in recent funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Gates accused Musk of contributing to the deaths of some of the world’s most vulnerable children, stating that the sudden withdrawal of aid has led to life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses and risks the resurgence of deadly diseases like measles, HIV, and polio.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said to the Financial Times.
According to The Guardian, staffers from Musk’s Doge Initiative have played a key role in dismantling USAID, reportedly laying off over 5,600 workers. Musk also canceled grants to a hospital in Gaza Province that aimed to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, allegedly under the mistaken belief that the U.S. was supplying condoms to Hamas.
“I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” Gates stressed.
In a separate announcement published on his blog, Gates detailed his plans for distributing his wealth over the next two decades “Over the next twenty years, the foundation will work together with our partners to make as much progress towards our vision of a more equitable world as possible,” he wrote.
The escalating tensions between two of the world’s most influential billionaires underscore the high stakes involved in global humanitarian aid.
