Pakistan is one of four polio endemic countries in the world. CIA using a fake vaccination campaign to gather intelligence on Osama Bin Laden may have seriously undermined efforts to eradicate polio worldwide. Ugh.
That is Mark Goldberg, on whether we’d prefer to eradicate a disease or a terrorist.
5 Responses
It’s not really worth getting mad about disease eradication losing out to the War On Terra. The relative budgets tell you everything there is to know.
Yes that is right that Pakistan one of four polio endemic countries in the world. Pakistan is suffered from its home affairs as bomb blasts and more. They should more considered for the peace and development for their nation.
I am not sure this makes such a difference. After all, most people faced with the choice of vaccination will know that they are not on the list of most wanted terrorists.
Many parents in the West refuse vaccination for their children too.
I completely agree. Pakistan remains one of the four countries (i think) in the world from which polio has not been eradicated as yet. There is a lot of resistance from areas in the Northern part of the country against the administration of polio drops as they think its a Western conspiracy to make their future generations impotent. But polio cases have also been increasing in other parts of the country now.
Another issue with polio vaccinations is proper storage facilities aren’t available and if the vaccination isn’t stored at a certain temperature than it becomes ineffective. As a result, there have also been incidences of polio in children who had been administered the required drops.
If the news that the CIA had carried out a fake polio campaign is used by propagandists then the goal of polio eradication in Pakistan might become even tougher
“Short-sighted” is the phrase I keep thinking of. Ugh indeed. A commenter over at Tom Paulson’s site actually had the nerve to argue this: “So tell me, how many citizens of Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan were blown up in the last five years compared to the number stricken by polio? What would result in greater overall improvements in health for these communities, democracy or some UN/NGO vaccination drive?”
Of course, polio mortality is only so low because of mass vaccination campaigns… which rely on public trust. And the total number of lives saved by all vaccines in the last few decades dwarfs — by several orders of magnitude — the lives lost to terrorism. It just goes to show you how much harder it is to get people to care about every day events (like deaths from car accidents or infectious diseases) vs. rare, highly visible deaths (like those from terrorism or war).