John: overall human health will get worse as the US and other countries cut health investment (2025)
prediction · status: due 2027; outcome not yet known · last event: repeated (2025-06-10) · owner: John
In March 2025 John predicted that overall human health would get worse as the United States and other countries cut health funding. He restated it that spring with an estimate of 750,000 more tuberculosis deaths within two years and graphs of progress he expected to stop and reverse.
Told alongside: John: US spending cuts will probably bring a 30% rise in drug-resistant TB within a couple of years (2025)
About: global health
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-03-04 | predicted | John says millions of lives are at risk and overall human health will get worse, which should stress us out. | The ANXIETY IS PALPABLE 00:02:00 |
| 2025-03-18 | repeated | John says US government spending cuts mean, by one estimate, a probable 30% increase in drug-resistant tuberculosis in the next couple of years. (hedged) | ITS ALL HAPPENING 00:03:20 |
| 2025-04-15 | repeated | John cites an estimate that within two years, without restored funding, TB deaths will rise from 1.25 million to 2 million, up 750,000; TB is the deadliest infectious disease. (hedged) | Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? 00:15:51 |
| 2025-06-10 | repeated | John says graphs of child mortality, TB and HIV deaths since 2000 all bring good news, but this progress will stop and reverse because of the US-led global pullback in health funding. | 90,000,000 Lives for $20 00:00:00 |
What is said about it
9 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2025-03-18 · ITS ALL HAPPENING — John calls this devastating: drug-resistant TB is harder to cure for individuals, and more of it circulating gives it more chances to develop further resistance. — 00:03:20
- 2025-03-04 · The ANXIETY IS PALPABLE — John says having a book come out is always stressful because it is the culmination of several years of his life and he wants people to like it and respond generously. — 00:02:05
- 2025-03-04 · The ANXIETY IS PALPABLE — John says his private, personal anxieties are at the moment legion. — 00:02:15
- 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John says the problem is also the chaotic way funding stopped: a sudden total freeze with no warning let no country fill gaps, so TB and HIV treatment was massively discontinued. — 00:16:21
- 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John says it will be hard to regain the trust of people abandoned by the US government; unlike development's slow benefits, the harm will show quickly. — 00:16:50
- 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — Adam Schiff: Schiff says some harms are permanent: someone who gets TB because of US absence suffers an injury that can be treated but never undone, as with damaged relationships. — 00:17:37
- 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — Adam Schiff: Schiff is confident USAID will be fully back, but says the world will always wonder whether the US is one election away from withdrawing support again. — 00:18:10
- 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — Adam Schiff: Schiff says competitors stepping into the void are not acting from altruism: they use development or health assistance to gain a foothold and want payback. — 00:18:39
- 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John adds that US aid is not always about altruism either. — 00:18:39