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How the CIA Sabotaged Pakistan's Public Health
Pakistan is one of two remaining countries in the world where polio is still endemic. The other is Afghanistan. In the past, concerted efforts have been made to combat the highly contagious and life-threatening disease, but obstacles such as lack of education, insufficient funding, and logistical challenges have always hindered progress. However, in the early 2000s, foreign organizations such as the WHO, UNICEF, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with thousands of healthcare workers on the ground, offered hope for polio eradication, as the number of cases dramatically decreased. Nevertheless, Pakistan went from being a nation that had nearly eliminated polio to one where its polio cases made up a staggering 85 percent of the worldwide total. This rise was due to vaccine reluctance that had turned into resistance, accompanied by anger and violence.
In 2012, nine vaccine workers were murdered in Pakistan due to mass vaccine conspiracies that claimed polio vaccinations were a Western scheme to harm (or sterilize) Pakistanis. This led the United Nations to ultimately withdraw its vaccination teams. In 2013, legitimate vaccine workers along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border were driven away by villagers fuelled by spy accusations. Then, the Taliban prohibited polio vaccinations in certain parts of Pakistan. In another instance, another anti-polio vaccination campaign was abruptly halted due to conspiracy theories, which led to the deaths of two policemen and one health worker. This same hysteria caused more than 25,000 children to be rushed into local hospitals after the spread of unfounded rumours that a polio vaccine led to fainting and vomiting. In a separate occurrence, angry protesters burnt down a health-care facility in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The healthcare campaign is falling apart. In just one week, “at least 700,000 families refused vaccination in the Khyber Pakhtukhwa province alone”. Overall, at least 35 healthcare workers have been killed during their vaccination attempts in Pakistan, with damage in terms of unvaccinated children being innumerable.
The refusal to vaccinate is not limited to polio, nor is it confined to specific incidents. Over the past decade, the COVID-19, measles, and HPV vaccines have all been met with skepticism and suspicion in certain areas of Pakistan. While some theories may seem far-fetched or irrational, it would be unjust to dismiss them all as baseless. This pervasive fear has resulted in the deaths of countless unvaccinated individuals and can be traced back to the year 2011 in Abbottabad, where the CIA played a role.