The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-polio-vaccination-campaign-suspend-9fc299a2e72dddf81f913da9f7f05e81

24 Comments

  1. They are under the false impression that the workers are trying to sterilize the children. I wonder if a public relations campaign by the UN to properly inform them of the benefits of what they’re doing could help

  2. We were a couple years away defeating wild polio completely from the face of the earth. The third ever disease humanity could’ve wiped out and it would’ve been one of our greatest societal accomplishments. Now, instead because of the situation in Gaza and Afghanistan, we’ve been set back a decade, maybe more, maybe indefinitely.

  3. > News of the suspension was relayed to U.N. agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

    > A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.

    Let’s hope that whatever differences there are can be resolved.

    Regular vaccination drives are important and so far, the Taliban appear to have been cooperative.

  4. This kind of shit ought to get a massive response. Stuff like opting out of polio vaccination is how you bring back an eradicated virus and will ultimately not just hurt their population but everyone else.

  5. Gee, I can’t imagine why. This lancet article explains where the mistrust stems from:

    [Polio eradication: the CIA and their unintended victims](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60900-4/fulltext)

    > The agency organised a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in Abottabad, Pakistan, in a bid to obtain DNA from the children of Bin Laden, to confirm the presence of the family in a compound and sanction the rollout of a risky and extensive operation. Release of this information has had a disastrous effect on worldwide eradication of infectious diseases, especially polio.

    >On May 16, 2014, the White House announced that the CIA will no longer use vaccination programmes as a cover for espionage. The news comes in the wake of a series of militant attacks on polio vaccination workers in Pakistan, with legitimate health-care workers targeted as being US spies.

  6. Accurate_Return_5521 on

    And all this would make for a great dystopian novel if it were not for the fact it’s real and getting worse