In the Marvel movie “Infinity War,” there’s a haunting scene where the villain Thanos collects six magical stones, snaps his fingers, and half the population of the universe disappears. Just like that. No warning, no appeal. He calls it mercy.
But that’s fiction.
On July 1, The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, published a sobering report. It estimates that more than 14 million people, many of them children, could die by 2030 as a direct result of the United States slashing global humanitarian aid earlier this year. These aren’t abstract numbers. These are real lives, and this policy change could become one of the deadliest decisions of our time.
According to The Lancet, this shock to the global health system will be on par with a major armed conflict or global pandemic. The abrupt end of U.S. support for programs like malaria prevention, maternal care, HIV treatment, and childhood vaccinations could cause over 4.5 million deaths in children under five.
Why? Because President Trump promised to eliminate what he calls “wasteful” foreign aid. He began that process earlier this year. Programs under USAID, long supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations, were gutted, and their operations shifted under the State Department. The impact is already being felt.
It’s hard not to think of that snap again.
Of course, 14 million isn’t half the planet’s population. But it’s still staggering. Fourteen million people, twice the population of New York City. And unlike Thanos’s snap, this isn’t random. It’s a decision. A policy. One made with detachment, and justified with political rhetoric.
Some will say, “We need to take care of our own first.” But here’s the thing: foreign aid is less than 1 percent of our national budget. That’s about 17 cents a day per American, less than the cost of a postage stamp. And it does enormous good: The Lancet estimates that over the last 30 years, U.S. health aid has helped prevent 90 million deaths around the world.
So why does this matter to people in Hardwick, Walden, Greensboro, Craftsbury or Stannard?
Because the kind of country we are matters. Because Vermont has always punched above its weight when it comes to compassion and global responsibility. Because we’ve seen how interconnected the world really is: how disease, instability, and injustice don’t stay in one place. And because if we say we value life, we can’t turn our backs on the most vulnerable simply because they live farther away.
We don’t need a superhero to fix this. We just need ordinary citizens to speak up. Call your elected officials. Write your letters. Support organizations that still believe in helping people simply because they need help.
Thanos may be fictional. But mass suffering by indifference isn’t.
The snap has already happened. What we do next is on us.
Jeff Pierpont
Walden
Jeff Pierpont
Jeff Pierpont is the interim minister at the Greensboro United Church of Christ while Ed Sunday-Winters is away on sabbatical.
