Connect the Dots: Trump, Public Health, and the Third World
Despite the fact that Trump’s just-announced funding freeze could negatively impact PEPFAR, I don’t believe for a second that he is going to let this program, and the people it serves, languish.
BY STEVEN KRITZ
View original article at Brownstone.org.
After several years of enduring all of the ‘woke’ progressive conspiracy theories regarding President Trump, I had come to believe that their favorite recreational activity was to go to a museum that had a Jackson Pollock painting hanging on the wall, in order to stare at it for hours trying to connect the dots. It got to the point that I began to think that the ‘drip method’ was actually a term that described the people viewing the paintings, rather than a description of Pollock’s painting style.
At the risk of being guilty of the thing I’m denigrating (a favorite tactic of the left), I will attempt to connect some dots. Considering that I’ve been called far worse than a drip over the course of my lifetime, I consider this to be a fairly low-risk exercise.
A number of reporters, including some who write for Brownstone Journal have legitimately expressed concern that third-world countries would bear the brunt of the withdrawal of the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). Areas of concern include public health programs to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. I share these concerns, but I will now connect a few dots to see whether these concerns are overblown.
First, I’ll provide some context. The immediate justification for US withdrawal from the WHO relates to activities surrounding their corrupt and incompetent handling of the Covid pandemic response. However, it’s been fairly obvious that ever since Donald Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower in 2015, he has viewed all multilateral agreements as a ruse to rip off the US for billions upon billions upon trillions of dollars. Other examples include the Paris Accords, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, NATO, and former trade agreements with Mexico and Canada.
In some cases, the pacts were too costly to continue US participation, while others could be salvaged if negotiated by people who were looking out for America’s best interests. By any reasonable measure, Trump handled these matters fairly well during his first term and has earned the right to continue this process during his second term.
Getting back to WHO and the Covid response, one of the things that happened in Africa was that funds were diverted from HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria programs in order to give Covid jabs (I refuse to refer to these shots as a vaccine) to a population with a median age of 26. This was a double whammy in that funds were diverted from programs that had been helpful in order to provide a treatment that harmed and killed more people than would have occurred if nothing had been done. The WHO was a major player in implementing these policies. The results for HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, and Covid have been uniformly disastrous, and this doesn’t include the collateral damage that occurred, which may turn out to be even worse than the direct harms.
Let me introduce a few more dots. It is my understanding that when it comes to HIV/AIDS treatment, PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), an exclusively US-run and funded program has been the major player in this effort. As for TB programs, the Gates Foundation (previously the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, something I’ll touch upon shortly) has been the major player, although it followed the WHO’s lead for Covid, likely for monetary and sundry nefarious reasons. As for malaria, I have no idea what’s going on currently.
So, what happens now? Here are the final dots. Despite the fact that Trump’s just-announced funding freeze could negatively impact PEPFAR, I don’t believe for a second that he is going to let this program, and the people it serves, languish. I mentioned earlier that the Gates Foundation had, for many years, been the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The decision by Melinda Gates to divorce Bill and disassociate herself from the foundation had a lot to do with Bill’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Follow me now!
A few weeks ago, Trump met with Gates, something that raised a few eyebrows even among his supporters; myself included. A little over a week ago, I happened to catch part of an interview that Trump had with the Fox & Friends weekend team. Trump was asked whether he’d be releasing the JFK, RFK, and MLK, Jr. intelligence reports, and the Jeffrey Epstein lists. For JFK, RFK, and MLK, Jr., he answered, “YES,” without a moment’s hesitation. However, for Jeffrey Epstein, he hesitated, and then said, “Maybe.”
Connecting all of these dots, I believe that Trump is in the process of making a deal with Gates (through his foundation) whereby the HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria programs are reconstituted better than ever! In return for Gates’ participation, his name will be kept out of the Jeffrey Epstein intelligence reports and lists, even if it means withholding all names since I continue to believe that Trump puts America’s success and prestige above his own desire for retribution…and making very bad people (in this case, Bill Gates) do the right thing despite themselves is right up Trump’s alley.
There is one final dot. Microsoft is now in the mix as a bidder for TikTok. Hmmmm!!!
Letting Gates off on any part of his crimes would be a great disappointment and a departure from that transparency and accountability we were promised.
Why is AIDS a completely different disease in Africa than the famous plague we had here in the US where it affected gays and drug users almost exclusively? In Africa it's women of child-bearing age and their children.