New World Screwworm and the Future of Genomic Sequencing in Africa
July 3, 2026
Editors' Note
As the United States marks its 250th anniversary tomorrow, the Trump administration continues to reshape the American health-care system and approach to global aid.
To open this week's newsletter, journalist Ron Shinkman outlines how the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model (WISeR), an artificial intelligence (AI)–backed pilot program designed to eliminate Medicare overspending, raised concerns in its first six months over delays in care and increased rates of denials.
Also in the United States, on June 18, the U.S. State Department announced the intention to permanently end all HIV-related U.S. foreign assistance to South Africa by early 2027. A group of authors led by Physicians for Human Rights' Public Health Director Thomas McHale detail how those sweeping cuts could degrade the country's hard-earned gains in HIV/AIDS prevention, increase the risk of severe infections, and limit community health access without a viable funding transition.
Next, CFR Senior Fellow Prashant Yadav and authors from the Institut Pasteur de Dakar explain how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa expanded its capacity for pathogen genomic sequencing—the same technology used to map the Ebola virus behind the current outbreak in central Africa. To make lasting use of those capabilities, the authors argue that building platforms to support human genomic medicine can help strengthen pandemic preparedness, and ensure that African populations are central to the future of precision medicine.
To close, Executive Director of the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition Neil Vora warns how the ongoing outbreak of screwworm in U.S. livestock underscores the risk of animal-to-human disease spillover due to the wildlife trade.
Until next week!—Allison Krugman, Associate Editor, Data Visuals and Aly Martinez, Research Associate
The Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) model was launched to weed out Medicare fraud, but patients report lagging care and increased denials
