Ari Daniel

Well, to explain what was going on, we have to kind of rewind to about a year ago in early 2025 to a meeting that was held in Zanzibar.

Have you?

Well, so you know it's a tropical archipelago off the east coast of Africa.

So, as you so kindly pointed out with your lyrics, very far.

And when Penny was there with her hundred or so colleagues for that meeting, she says it was just crazy hot.

The gathering took place in a hotel perched on the edge of a brilliant blue ocean.

There were researchers and clinicians from across Africa, and then there were the international scientific advisors.

What money are we talking about here?

How much?

Penny and her colleagues had gotten a $45 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to create a state-of-the-art vaccine to prevent HIV.

The goal was to get teams across the continent to collaborate on developing something that would work in different African communities.

Exactly.

And within a country and even between individuals.

So at this meeting in Zanzibar, there was a real feeling of momentum.

Nonu Mkize is a colleague of Penny's and a senior medical scientist.

But just as that meeting was about to wrap up, Penny says the mood darkened.

Yep.

As you may recall, Nate, President Trump, who'd just been inaugurated at that point, had signed an executive order freezing most foreign aid.

Yeah.

But Penny and her colleagues soon found out.