The Ebola outbreak currently devastating the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda didn’t come out of thin air. It grew from the vacuum left behind by deliberate policy decisions made here in the United States.
This is the third largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history. As of late May, there were over 900 suspected cases in the Congo alone. The strain spreading through the region has no vaccine or targeted treatment. But the main difference between previous Ebola outbreaks and this one is that the systems that were supposed to catch and contain them early have been defunded.
The U.S. Agency for International Development sent approximately $1.2 billion in foreign aid to the Congo in 2024. By the final three months of 2025, that figure had collapsed to just $67 million. While that $1.2 billion figure may sound large at face value, USAID represented only 0.3% of the federal budget, compared to the Department of Defense’s 13%.
Many workers with experience responding to Ebola outbreaks, and critically, the relationships they’d built with local health officials, were fired when USAID was dismantled. As one former USAID official put it, the agency served as “the glue” coordinating health officials, NGOs and donors. Additionally, Kathleen Borgueta, who managed the East Africa portfolio for USAID’s global health bureau until 2025, said, “The backbone of our workforce and our ability to respond just isn’t there anymore.”
The human cost of these decisions is staggering, and it extends far beyond this outbreak. A recent peer-reviewed study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health projects that global aid cuts could lead to at least 9.4 million additional deaths by 2030 — including 2.5 million children under 5 — if current funding trends continue. Even before this Ebola crisis, 760,000 people had already died as a result of these cuts as of January.
Viruses don’t care about ideology or borders. When we dismantle the systems that detect and contain them abroad, we don’t save money. We defer costs in lives. Americans must ask their elected representatives: Who is accountable?
Ezekiel Wilson-Porter, Skokie
Anti-Muslim hate often goes unchecked
The deadly San Diego mosque shooting driven by anti-Muslim hate doesn’t surprise me. It proves once more that words have consequences. For American Muslims who are on the receiving end of rising Islamophobia, the barbs are thorns that pierce deeply. But many in the non-Muslim world and some mainstream media journalists mostly ignore or brush off this vile, verbal abuse.
When U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., calls Muslims the enemy “inside the gates,” U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., says he prefers dogs over Muslims and far-right political activist Laura Loomer — who has President Donald Trump’s ear — says Muslims should be deported and are an “invasive species,” why should it be a surprise that the two teenage gunmen learned to hate Muslims?
Such odious quotes are hate speech masquerading as free speech. Many Americans know the use of the N-word is unacceptable and are quick to call out antisemitism. But they don’t react the same way when it comes to anti-Muslim hate, and in many cases, are OK with it.
It is sad that Republican leaders have proposed the Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act instead of addressing the rising hate toward Muslims within their ranks.
The pending legislation states: “Any alien in the United States found to be an adherent of Sharia law by the Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, or Attorney General shall have any immigration benefit, immigration relief, or visa revoked, be considered inadmissible or deportable, and shall be removed from the United States.”
That would make every Muslim who prays, fasts or goes to Hajj vulnerable.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s, D-Wash., description of a congressional hearing on “Sharia law” as “bizarre” was a bit mild. But she rightly criticized Republican lawmakers for unfairly targeting every mosque as a “beachhead of terrorism.”
It is important to note that it’s not just the racist politicians maligning Muslims. Some journalists have been reckless with their words and selection of stories and commentary, often aligning terrorism with Islam and Muslims.
I suggest media workers and politicians take a crash course in anti-Muslim hate and relearn how ignorance and hate speech can lead to prejudice, stereotyping, reductionism and physical attacks. On every March 15 — the United Nations-designated “International Day to Combat Islamophobia” — media representatives should take a pledge to not use words and phrases that are overtly or covertly Islamophobic and to cover our communities fairly.
If nothing changes, we American Muslims can only ask, “What comes next?”
Dr. Javeed Akhter, Oak Brook
Trump’s bad deals
“I don’t make bad deals!” President Donald Trump recently posted on Truth Social.
Hmmm. Trump Taj Mahal. Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump Steaks. Trump Vodka. Trump Ice bottled water. Trump Mortgage. GoTrump.com. Trump Shuttle. Trump: The Game. Trump magazine. Trump University.
I think Trump is spot on. He doesn’t make bad deals. He makes horrific ones.
Wes Dickson, Orland Park
Trump is worth a penny at best
I fully agree with having our current president’s likeness on currency. But a $250 bill is not the best option. I say the penny, now no longer in production, would have been ideal.
Todd Miglieri, Evergreen Park
Poking the Bears
Thank you, Illinois House, for standing up to the Bears!
Warren Rodgers Jr., Orland Park
Buh-bye!
To paraphrase the famous Gerald Ford-related front-page New York Daily News headline: Illinois to the McCaskeys: Drop dead!
Dennis Allen, Wilmette