Polio, the West's war on Muslims, Taliban, murders and Pakistan. This is not hyperbole.

[Prosaic Visitant]

Slightly surprised to see that this hasn't yet arrived to the halls of the TWC, we all love Pakistan. Maybe there's nothing to discuss. idk.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21568773-grisly-attacks-pakistan-target-those-doing-good-children-killing-disease

Dec 22nd 2012 | ISLAMABAD | from the print edition

ON DECEMBER 18th five health workers, all women, were gunned down in Pakistan in carefully planned and co-ordinated shootings. They were administering polio vaccinations. The following day a vaccination supervisor and her driver were killed. Several health workers are critically injured. The youngest killed was a 17-year-old in the north-western town of Peshawar. Others were working in poor, ethnic Pushtun districts in the southern megacity of Karachi, where polio workers have already been killed this year. The Pakistani Taliban or allied groups are the murderers, and they have now caused the UN to suspend its campaign to eradicate polio in Pakistan.
The country is one of only three countries left where polio is endemic, leading the world in 2011 in cases of the crippling childhood disease. It had been making progress in 2012. The country, backed by the UN, was striving urgently to immunise 34m children. Almost all the polio cases are among Pushtuns, who live mainly in north-west Pakistan or in Karachi. They also form the main ethnic group in the Pakistani Taliban.
The extremists spread the rumour that polio drops are a Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. As it is, the credibility of health workers has been badly shaken by the revelation in 2011 that the CIA had recruited a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi. He set up a fake vaccination programme, for hepatitis B, as part of the hunt that finally killed Osama bin Laden. Militants also use polio to press the government. They say they will refuse to allow immunisations in North or South Waziristan, part of the wild tribal areas, unless attacks by unmanned American drone aircraft are stopped.


The climate for humanitarian workers has not been improved by the authorities. They have harassed aid professionals, restricting their movements and limiting visas, fearing that spies lurk among them. In 2012 the Red Cross halted much of its work in Pakistan after a British doctor was kidnapped in the western city of Quetta and beheaded.
The prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, insists that “we will stay the course until polio is wiped out”. If the country fails, new generations of children will have their lives blighted by this wholly preventable disease.

So, does anyone know more about these attacks (like, the wider public's reactions)? will this become a serious problem for the wider world if polio retains it's presence? what effect will this have on Pakistan's already mercurial relations with America, given that, apparently, negative perceptions of America and their evil Muslim-killing/spying vaccines are partly the cause/rationale for these murders. Will I get some criticism for the source I chose?

[Dr Zoidberg]

Build a wall and institute a no fly zone over the Tribal regions and leave them to themselves. Seriously, I can see no compelling reason why such people - who shoot aid workers for Christs sake - deserve anything but a slow and painful, disease ravaged death.

[DarthLazy]

Build a wall and institute a no fly zone over the Tribal regions and leave them to themselves. Seriously, I can see no compelling reason why such people - who shoot aid workers for Christs sake - deserve anything but a slow and painful, disease ravaged death.

Huzzah, I support thee .

Back to the topic, in Karachi, this was not heard in the news, at all, maybe because 20-50-100 people die everyday due to targeted political or shia killings but meh , not really news .

On polio, there is a huge campaign for vaccination in the tribal areas with prominent sportsmen (from the tribal areas) playing a major role, too bad animals cant be tamed .

And I fail to see what the Taliban being against vaccinations has to do with US-Pak relations .

[Holger Danske]

Well there should at least be the option to arrange human safari there..

[Dr Zoidberg]

Well there should at least be the option to arrange human safari there..

Oh sure, but only in something heavily armored and with plenty of ammo....

[removeduser_487563287433]

will this become a serious problem for the wider world if polio retains it's presence?

No. Polio is a disease that humanity could wipe out in a relatively short space of time. It's a disease humanity could have wiped out about sixty years ago. We are abundantly capable of this, and in the world where science and rationale (broadly speaking) holds sway we never need fear diseases like polio.

In the wake of World War II, and the heyday of the United Nations, the WHO was able to eradicate several diseases, such as smallpox, which at that time killed two million people a year. Polio was also incredibly close to being destroyed, until an imam in Nigeria convinced his community that the vaccine was part of a western conspiracy and should be ignored. The result was of course that polio ravaged his community and every single case of polio in the world today is from the strain that survived in Nigeria.

Thanks, religion.

[Nietzsche]

In the wake of World War II, and the heyday of the United Nations, the WHO was able to eradicate several diseases, such as smallpox, which at that time killed two million people a year. Polio was also incredibly close to being destroyed, until an imam in Nigeria convinced his community that the vaccine was part of a western conspiracy and should be ignored. The result was of course that polio ravaged his community and every single case of polio in the world today is from the strain that survived in Nigeria.

Thanks, religion.

So religion is part of a vast western conspiracy to kill people with polio in Nigeria? I'll get my tinfoil hat on. You've outdone yourself here Ferrets.

[Jom]

No. Polio is a disease that humanity could wipe out in a relatively short space of time. It's a disease humanity could have wiped out about sixty years ago. We are abundantly capable of this, and in the world where science and rationale (broadly speaking) holds sway we never need fear diseases like polio.

In the wake of World War II, and the heyday of the United Nations, the WHO was able to eradicate several diseases, such as smallpox, which at that time killed two million people a year. Polio was also incredibly close to being destroyed, until an imam in Nigeria convinced his community that the vaccine was part of a western conspiracy and should be ignored. The result was of course that polio ravaged his community and every single case of polio in the world today is from the strain that survived in Nigeria.

Thanks, religion.

Unfortunately unfounded vaccination scares aren't only linked to second- or third-world countries, but those places lack the robust medical research capabilities that the west have that can disprove hysterical lies. That and people are just less educated and more willing to believe what they are told by religious leaders.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Unfortunately unfounded vaccination scares aren't only linked to second- or third-world countries, but those places lack the robust medical research capabilities that the west have that can disprove hysterical lies. That and people are just less educated and more willing to believe what they are told by religious leaders.

This is true.

[Kraut]

Unfortunately unfounded vaccination scares aren't only linked to second- or third-world countries.

Get Wild at a Measles Party
Imagine being invited to a party where the sole purpose is to infect your child with measles. It's actually not all that uncommon in Germany. But then, many in the country are afraid of vaccines.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-419258.html

[Dr Zoidberg]

Unfortunately unfounded vaccination scares aren't only linked to second- or third-world countries, but those places lack the robust medical research capabilities that the west have that can disprove hysterical lies. That and people are just less educated and more willing to believe what they are told by religious leaders.

There is also that ridiculous group of people in the US and Australia (they may be elsewhere too) who believe the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine (MMR) causes autism in children It's completely false and based on some bogus "research". And yet, despite what the medical community says to disprove them, they consider it to all be a grand conspiracy.

There are idiots everywhere i suppose. Problem is, they breed.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I think you should try to read my post again.

[Nietzsche]

I think you should try to read my post again.

Nah. I got it the first time. My summary is accurate.

[Dr Zoidberg]

I really think you should go back and re-read his post. You could not be more wrong.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Maybe reread it with the help of a dictionary? I don't know.

[mongrel]

Maybe reread it with the help of a dictionary? I don't know.

"The West" and a conspiracy to kill Afghans is not mentioned in any religious tract I am aware of. Try harder.

[removeduser_487563287433]

"The West" and a conspiracy to kill Africans is not mentioned in any religious tract I am aware of. Try harder.

Mongrel what are you doing.

[mongrel]

Mongrel what are you doing.

Spell checker. Should say Afghans . Message is the same though.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Making their people suffer... sounds about right.

So religion is part of a vast western conspiracy to kill people with polio in Nigeria? I'll get my tinfoil hat on. You've outdone yourself here Ferrets.

Let me translate: Polio might have been stamped out by now had a religious leader not convinced his people immunization was a western conspiracy. He is thanking religion for once again getting in the way of human betterment.

[priam11]

Clearly Pakistan is on to something....it has to be the West.

http://www.polioeradication.org/Port...2012_03Apr.pdf