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Guest Essay

By Thomas B. Edsall

Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.

As President Trump continues his march through America’s democratic institutions, trampling constitutional restraints and silencing dissent, one of the most pressing questions is: What damage is beyond repair, and what can still be undone?

On July 19, the British medical journal The Lancet published a study, “Evaluating the Impact of Two Decades of U.S.A.I.D. Interventions and Projecting the Effects of Defunding on Mortality up to 2030.”

The Lancet study found that before the start of Trump’s second term, higher levels of U.S.A.I.D. funding — primarily directed toward low-to-moderate-income countries — “were associated with a 15 percent reduction in age-standardized all-cause mortality and a 32 percent reduction in under-5 mortality. This finding indicates that 91.83 million all-age deaths, including 30.39 million in children........

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