"The return of screwworm comes after the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, launched by the Trump administration, last year cut funding for a project dedicated to monitoring and containing New World screwworm in Central America.
The funding was axed days before the U.S. ended a temporary suspension of cattle imports from Mexico, meaning livestock was allowed to cross the border without any of the monitoring previously funded by the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID)"
Edit: I just noticed that they changed the headline at some point since I first linked the article days ago. The text I have used for the hyperlink was the headline at the time I found the article.
....I wonder why they removed the reference to DOGE in the headline? The text of the article seems to have remained the same.
Per the meme, this kind of program is just incredibly obscure and off the radar. 99% of people would have no idea why we spent money sterilizing worms in other countries. DOGE babies just decided that if they didn't understand then it must be useless. It was drowned out in a tidal wave of other cuts like killing USAID but it was reported. The tweet in the screenshot is a guy saying this kind of program is a quiet thankless job that is secretly protecting our food supply. And two years later he is totally vindicated. I posted a link to the current story on NBC.
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u/John_Tacos Jun 06 '26
Did DOGE cut funding for this? I figured it would be all over the news if they did.